Pastor Tom's Daily Devotional

Jonah 4:2 (NLT) So he complained to the LORD about it: Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, LORD? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people. So many people put the tag on God that He is out to get you.  They think if you make one mistake, He will bring some calamity on you to teach you.  I was taught growing up that God sits up in heaven on a big throne with a lightning-bolt in His hand, and He is just looking for someone to tick Him off and then, look out!  Even insurance companies call a disaster an, “Act of god.”  Well, that is not our God! Jesus told us so clearly in John 10:10 who the destroyer is, and it is not God!  Here it says, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abun...

Joel 2:28-29 (NKJV) And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. 29 And also on my menservants and on my maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. We are living in a great and wonderful day!  It is a day when God’s Spirit is being poured out like never before!  It is also a day when satan knows that the end is near, and he is trying to steal, kill and destroy like never before.  We can rest assured, however, that the Greater One has won and gives us the victory. God has promised us that His Spirit will be poured out on all flesh, and we are seeing many being saved from all nations.  Nations that would not even let the Gospel in before are now having great revival!  We are seeing this on every continent of the world.  It is a very exciting time to be alive and supporting work...

Galatians 5:16 (NKJV) I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. This is a verse that used to stump me.  How do I walk in the Spirit if I live in the flesh?  Is this some sort of twilight-zone type of walking?  Is this for people who just meditate and live in caves?  Then one day, as I was thinking about this and studying it, I saw that walking in the Spirit means staying occupied with spiritual things . Like a flash, it hit me!  When I am reading my Bible, I am walking in the Spirit.  When I am praying, I am walking in the Spirit.  When I am going to church, I am walking in the Spirit.  I am walking in the Spirit when I am doing what the Bible says, like loving my wife, taking care of my children, working as unto the Lord, and loving God and people. All of a sudden, it got out of the spooky and got to the normal.  I walk in the Spirit every day as I strive to live the way that Go...

2 Kings 22:1-2 (NKJV) Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. 2 And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. When you read about the lives of the different kings of Israel and Judah, sometimes it makes you scratch your head.  Here they were given a great opportunity to be a blessing to a nation, yet so many of them lived for lust and fame. Josiah, however, was not one of them that messed up.  From the very young age of eight, he made a decision to serve God.  I can just imagine all those that tried to put pressure on him to do it like everybody else.  “Life is to be lived to have fun!  Enjoy the moment, for today we live and tomorrow we die!”  But not this young king.  He had something deep within him that...

Luke 16:10 (NLTSE) If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won't be honest with greater responsibilities. Many people want the big things before they are faithful in the little things.  But according to this verse, if we are not faithful over the little things, our Heavenly Father is not going to give us the big things.  You see, God is looking for faithfulness.  He is looking for those who will say yes to doing whatever He asks; not whatever we want.  He knows what He has placed within us and as we are faithful to that, then promotion comes.  I read this little quote many years ago and it has stuck with me regarding this subject.  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep s...

1 Corinthians 15:10 (NKJV) But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Each one of us has been given unique gifts from God our Father, and we are to use them as He sees fit.  Here the apostle Paul tells us that he is what he is by the grace of God, and it is the same for you and me.  We each have been blessed by the Father with the ability to be a blessing to others in our sphere of influence. Whatever we have been given, we need to give away.  You might say, Pastor, what does that mean?  Well, what it means is to whom much is given much is required.  You see, our lives are most blessed when we are a blessing.  Our lives are most fulfilled when we get out of ourselves and look for ways to be a blessing to others. I am so glad that the apostle Paul said yes to use all that God had given him. Withou...