Luke 17:5 NASB "The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”"I needed to let go and let them hold the rope! Today's verse is rather simple to read but so hard to put into action! The instructor said "yes, just drop over the edge and begin to slide down!" While training for the Fire Department, we had to learn to rappel down the side of a building, that meant putting my faith in three things. One was the men who were holding the rope and two was myself in letting go and climb over the rope and three was the rope itself. Putting my faith out there, living it, was a lot harder than just saying the words "I believe!" From today's scripture, these men knew they needed more faith so they simply asked for it. I wonder, when was the last time we simply asked for our faith to increase and what better place to go for it than our Lord and Savior! Oh yeah, I made it to the bottom with no problem and found myself having more faith in the men, the rope and myself! Putting our faith into action will increase our faith, so let's get out there and do it! peace, tom
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Philippians 2:8 NASB "And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross."If I had simply followed the rules, things would have turned out differently! Today's verse speaks of obedience and how Jesus was obedient to the point of death! Sitting alone in my room, I began to rethink how I got there. My parents had set rules up for us to live by and I had not followed them and ended up getting punished. I remember looking out the window at my brother and the kids from the neighborhood having fun on a beautiful sunny day, but here I sat, punished for my disobedience! There are always consequences for our actions, if we follow the rules, obedient to those in authority over us, the consequences are pleasant but when we aren't obedient, we must pay the consequences for our actions. Can we imagine being obedient to the point of death? It's what Jesus did, maybe we should follow His Example for His consequences was the Resurrection and new life for each of us! 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;"It wasn't easy but we endured! Today's verse shares about how we should labor despite being abused and persecuted! Be sure to read it for it teaches us to bless and endure it! I am not sure why they didn't want us to put the fire out but that's what we were called to do, so we did it! While working at a house fire, some men came and began to yell at us for trying to put out the fire. They were yelling some pretty harsh words, and even tried to stop our crew from entering the building. Not knowing why they did so, we continued to do the job we were called to do! In life, there will be those who abuse us and persecute us as we stand for godly manhood. The key is how we react to them. We have choice to either give up or get stronger in Him and bless those by how we react! I pray that we lock shields and stand up for godly manhood no matter what we face, maybe thats why Jesus said to pray for our enemies! Just sayin' peace, tom
John 15:2 NASB "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit."It was that time of the year to cut them off! Today's verse speaks of fruit and how if we don't bear fruit, we will be cut off and if we bear fruit, we will be trimmed so we can bear more fruit! Getting ready for winter, I needed to cut back some of the bushes and shrubs and trees around our home. If I let them keep growing, next spring, there would be less fruit so the cutting began. I couldn't help but think that there are areas in our life that need to be cut, trimmed and made ready to bear fruit. There are even those people we need to cut out of our life for they are keeping us from bearing any fruit. The bushes that I cut didn't exactly look the greatest but I know next spring, they will bloom and bear more fruit! Our lives may look a little ragged as we begin to cut those things out that need cutting but we can and will bear more fruit! If we follow where the Holy Spirit leads the cutters in our life, we will bear more fruit! peace, tom
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Tom SEmberAuthor of Daily Devotions Archives
May 2024
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