John 16:22 NASB "Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one is going to take your joy away from you."There will come a day! Today's verse helps those of us who are missing a loved one! It will be a difficult day but deep in my heart, I know I will see him again. This will be the first father's day without my earthly father and simply put, I miss him. I find myself thinking about him everyday. The lessons he taught me, the discipline he gave me, the life he led, all come back to me throughout my days. I have a choice, I can sit and cry all day, mourn the loss of such a wonderful father or I can live what he taught me. I choose to live his way, by putting Christ first and then others. I hold firm to the Truth of today's Word by knowing I will see him again! As we head into father's day weekend, if your dad is still alive, give him a big hug, if not, take time to thank God for the time we had with them! Miss ya' dad! peace, tom
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Philippians 2:3 NASB "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility consider one another as more important than yourselves"It's simply called respect! Today's Word has some great advice in how we treat others! It's easy to think of ourselves first but then that wouldn't really show respect to others! While working at the firehouse, a gentleman came in looking for something to eat. He was, as many would call him, a street person. Now some would tell him to hit the streets while others helped him with a meal and a few dollars. He was grateful for the meal and the change in his pocket. Later that day, we seen him going around the fire house and picking up the trash that the wind had blown around. Here was a man who understood respect and being treated like a human being. Maybe we all need to think about how we treat each other, we have the choice to be respectful of all or think of ourselves first. Let's choose the choice Christ made, by thinking of others first! peace, tom
2 Corinthians 4:9 NASB "persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed;"Sometimes plans go awry! Today's verse is about having things not go the way we planned! The plans were made, everything was set up and now we just had to wait for everything to come together. That sounds like the perfect plan and yet somewhere along the way, things happen. Things we never thought of, where the perfect plans go amuck. We have two choices when that happens, give up and dig in! Giving up is easy, but digging in is what will separate us from those who give up. Putting our trust in Christ and His Plans, not ours, will give us the strength to push through the abuse, persecution, plans that go wrong. The key is whether or not we have trust in the Lord. Let me ask us one question, has He ever let us down?! How we answer that question, will determine whether we are those who give up or dig in! peace, tom
Romans 3:23 NASB "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"We are not alone! Today's verse states that we all have at least one thing in common! No, I am not talking about the current news about UFOs but what I am taking about is the fact that we are not alone in the fact that we sin. As sad as that is, we all sin, we all fall short, we all do things that do not line up with God's Word. For some of us it will be easier to believe that there is life on other planets than the Truth about our sin. When we face the reality of the fact that we sin, we can then begin the process of repentance and changing our life to avoid those sins. But we must first admit the Truth, we sin, we all sin, we all make choices that bring us further away from God. Let's be like the UFOs that are getting closer to earth and get closer to God's Word and repent of our sin. (there may even be pictures of our sin, just like the UFOs lol ) peace, tom
Colossians 4:5 NASB :Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity."They are watching! Today's Word speaks to us about our conduct and making the best use of our time with others! They stood back and watched for a few minutes before they came up to me and asked if I was who I said I was. I didn't even know they were watching me and glad I didn't act too goofy like usual. LOL - I was at a men's weekend retreat, when some young men came up to me and said they had heard I was there. They had read the book I had written and wanted to know about my "anger years". I shared more about how Jesus changed my life than I did about myself because without Him, I would be the same old guy who let anger run my life. I answered all their questions and then we prayed together. Letting the Truth of who we were before we came to know Christ, gives us an opportunity to be real with the younger generation! Don't miss an opportunity to be real when it comes to what Christ has done f
Joshua 1:9 NASB "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not be terrified nor dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."I sat back and remembered! Today's verse is a command given to a young man who would lead God's people! As the air began to smell like a fire, and the smoke filled the air, I thought back to my first fire as a rookie firefighter. I remember thinking to myself "this is crazy"! As I joined other men who ran into the building, I began to find the strength and courage to go in when others were running out. Sometimes God will call us and ask us to do the unthinkable, like going into a burning building. We will need to find the strength and courage found only in Christ and realize that God is right there with us. The world will call us crazy and maybe even brave when we go where God sends us. Let's not be terrified or dismayed but put our trust in God to do the unthinkable, the unnatural, and the bold things for Christ and lead His people! peace, tom
1 John 2:16 NASB "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world."Wow, what a nice truck! Today's verse is about wanting the things of the world! As the truck went by, I thought to myself "I would love to have that!". It was an older truck that had been restored. The color was my favorite, the style unique and the desire of my heart was to have one like that. But then I began to really think about it. I had no place to store it, I didn't need it for I had a vehicle but I got caught up in the desires of the world! I would rather have the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the eyes of Jesus and the faith to share Jesus. Let's be careful that our desires are not of this world but of the Word. That we would seek what Jesus did and lived as our desire rather than on the things of this world! peace, tom
Mark 9:24 NASB "Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief!”"I didn't believe he could do it, I should have known better! Today's verse is about believing and our unbelief! While helping one of my brothers out, my dad came along too. One of the concrete pads that led to the cottage had been moved, and needed to be replaced. My brother and I grabbed each corner and lifted it up to a place where my father said "I'll get it from here!" I thought to myself, there's no way he will lift it alone, for my brother and I struggled just to lift it. I didn't believe he could do it. Without any effort, my dad picked it up and carried it to where it needed to be. In life, we will have those " I need to believe" moments where our unbelief needs to be strengthened. Putting our trust and belief in Christ is something we may need to work on and believe that He will do anything we ask. Let's let our unbelief be strengthened by our faith in Christ! We may see what we thought was impossible, possible! peace, tom
1 Corinthians 4:12 NASB "and we labor, working with our own hands; when we are verbally abused, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it"Ouch, that hurts! Today's verse speaks to how we labor and endure! Weeding around my wife's rose garden means getting an occasional poke from the thorns. Sometimes, if I'm not careful, the thorns will go deep and get stuck in my skin and pull away from the plant to be planted in my arm or hand. The pain isn't that great but still, it's not a great feeling. When we share Jesus, there's always that chance we will get abused, persecuted but as today's scripture shares, we bless and endure it! Oh, when weeding, that means getting on my knees - just like praying for those we share Jesus with! Let's work hard to share Jesus as we are abused and persecuted for when they come to know Jesus, it's like a beautiful rose! peace, tom
Romans 8:25 EVS "But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience."And now we wait! Today's verse is about hope and how to wait with it! The plants and seeds are in the ground, and now we wait for them to grow. You never really know how your garden will grow but we hope that come harvest time, we will have a wonderful crop. As we put our backyard garden in, we hope that what we planted will grow to where we can enjoy the fruit of our labor. But it doesn't end by just putting the plants or seeds in the ground. We need to spend time watering, weeding and caring for them as they grow. Gardening is a lot like sharing Christ. We plant the seeds, we pray for them, we try and take care of them and let the Holy Spirit be our guide. We won't really know how the planting of the seeds will turn out but we hope they will! We can't rush the move of Christ anymore than we can rush the growth of our plants in the garden. We just put our hope in what we do not see and wait patiently for it. The question for today is "are we planting seeds of Christ"?, I hope so! peace, tom
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Tom SEmberAuthor of Daily Devotions Archives
May 2024
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