Pastor Tom's Daily Devotional

Jude 1:20-21 (NKJV) But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Praying in the Holy Spirit is a powerful way to stay built up.  It is also a great way to stay strong in the Lord and in His power.  You might ask, “What does that mean to pray in the Holy Spirit?”  Well, I always like to have the Bible interpret the Bible. In 1 Corinthians 14:14-15 it says, “For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.  What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding.” So we see that praying in tongues is praying in the spirit, or praying in the Holy Spirit.  God has given to each and every believer the beautiful gift of the Holy Spirit, and we c...

Ezra 3:11 (NKJV) And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the LORD: "For He is good, For His mercy endures forever toward Israel." Then all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. I am always amazed at people that can shout and scream at football games, and every other sporting event, but when they come to church, they are so quiet and look at other people who are praising God loudly like they are crazy.  Yet when I look into the Bible, I see that God is happy when we shout and celebrate for Him! We see in this verse that after the people laid the foundation to the temple, they got excited and they rejoiced!  Every time we build something new for the Kingdom of God, we need to get excited too!  Maybe it is a new facility at our home church, or a work overseas.  Whatever it might be, we need to shout and praise God, because it goes against everythi...

Genesis 22:1-2 (NKJV) Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." 2 Then He said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." So many people read this story of God asking Abraham to offer His son and say, “How can God do that?”  He is not like that anywhere else, so why would He ask this man, Abraham, to offer his only son?  We will never understand the Old Testament until we get a revelation of the New Testament; until we see Jesus! The Old Testament is “types and shadows” of the New, so when we look at a story like this and see Jesus in it, it brings great blessing.  Abraham was a covenant man with God, and as a covenant man, what was his belonged to his covenant partner.   Here, God and Abraham had made a covenant, and so for...

Exodus 15:23-25 (NKJV) Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah. 24 And the people complained against Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?" 25 So he cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet... What a beautiful picture of our lives before the cross, and after.  Here we are in life, bitter with sin, and getting more bitter each day.  People say they enjoy sinning, but deep within, sin pulls us down, and at times, it seems like there is no way to get back up.  Thank God for Jesus and what He did on the cross for us! You see, when Moses heard the people complaining, he cried out to the Lord.  God could have told Moses so many things, but He showed him a tree and He said to cast the tree into the water, and the water would become sweet.   So it is for us.  It is when we lo...

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NKJV) To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: 2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted; 3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6 a time to gain, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; 7 a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 8 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. As we read today’s verses, we can see that this is so true.  Life has its ups and downs; its days of great victory and its days of trial.  But what I have found out is that when we put God in charge of our lives, He helps us get through those rough times.  He promi...

2 Chronicles 7:14 (NKJV) If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. God is looking for a separate people; a people set apart unto Himself; a special people that will not get caught up in the things of this world, but will be a treasure unto Him.  In this verse, we see God talking to us, and not to the evil ones in the world.  He is saying, “If my people …”  That is me and you!  We are the people of God, and if we, the people of God, are doing things that are not pleasing to Him, then we need to change some stuff or we are not going to see healing in our land. If you read the book of Daniel, when he came to pray to God, He did not say that it is everyone else’s fault.  He said, “We have sinned.”  He included himself in the sins of the nation, and here God is telling us to do the same...

Ruth 1:16-17 (NKJV) But Ruth said: "Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you; for wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. 17 Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. The LORD do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me." These are some powerful verses of Scripture.  Here we have Ruth, a Moabite woman, whose father-in-law, brother-in-law and husband have all died.  She has a chance to go home, but she sees something special in her mother-in-law, Naomi.  She sees something that makes her want to stay with her instead of going back to her own land. I think about us as Christians.  Are people seeing things in our lives that make them desire our Jesus?  Do they see love coming out of us?  Do they see forgiveness?  Are our words seasoned with salt, or do they hear the same things they hear in th...