Pastor Black has, for some time, written a weekly (more-or-less) devotional for the Sunday bulletin. This is an assortment of recent messages, which will be updated with new devotionals on a regular basis.
Nothing is too good for the God we worship!
Around 444 B.C. a Jew by the name of Nehemiah was sad over the conditions of the Holy City. This was the city of God. This was where they meet and worshipped the Lord God. No one seemed to care. No one wanted to lead in the challenge to survey the city and roll up their sleeves and get to work. Nehemiah loved the place where they worshipped and he took the challenge.
In Nehemiah 13:11 he penned these words; then contended I with the rulers, and said, why is the house of God forsaken? And I gathered them together, and set them in their place.
The words that got me were the words “why is the house of God forsaken?” Friends, members, have you forgotten that this place of worship is the house of God? I walk through these buildings and across the grounds and I see where we have allowed the enemy to keep us away from keeping this place in tip top shape. Have we got to the point that we will not volunteer to the glory of God? Have we allowed satan to step in and make us slothful? Where is our sense of pride and dedication? Won’t you be the one to stand and take the lead? Come to the trustees and ask what can I do? Should we not all want our church building to say to the community around us, nothing is too good for the God we worship?
(8.2.2009)
Are you listening?
Psalms 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
One day as I was preparing these short devotions the Holy Spirit moved me to just listen. This is what I heard from Him, for me to allow Him to search me. This is what He brought to my mind:
- To take more time to pray.
- To confess and repent of a critical spirit that I had developed.
- To count my blessings which He gives each and every day.
- To praise Him for all things.
I have opened my heart to you; can you open yours to Him? Be still and know that He is God, listen and that still small voice will speak loudly in your spiritual ears. Are you listening?
(7.26.2009)
Growth and Pruning Comes From God
John 15:1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
John of all people understood this verse very well. When he was very old, he was banished to the Island of Patmos in the Algean Sea where he was a slave in the mines. How could this be? He was a child of God who walked with the Lord. He was the one whom Jesus loved and the one whom leaned on Jesus breast at supper. He was in the inner circle of fellowship with Christ.
If this man went through pruning, what makes us think that we won’t? But look at the end result. John got to have a special revelation from the Lord. Where He was faithful in the pruning time, God blessed him in a special way. This man John grew because he was pruned first.
As a child of God if we could shun God’s pruning, then we would shun spiritual growth. Spiritual growth always leads to sweet encounters of special times with God. Folks, we can’t have one without the other. Bless God for the pruning because growth is on the way.
(7.19.2009)
When Temptation Comes, Draw Closer To Christ
2Corinthians 10: 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
Times of temptation and times of conflict will come upon you, but the real conflict is this: will you allow your God to rescue you or will you try to rescue yourself? The world teaches us to battle it out and try for the victory, but the Scriptures teach us to bring our thoughts into captivity unto the obedience of Christ; that is where we will experience the victory already won.
Reach out and claim your thought life in the name of Jesus. Don’t believe the lies of the world and the Wicked One. The only way to fight them is by faith in the knowledge of God. What is that knowledge? That Jesus Christ died, was buried and arose and lives in us for us.
John 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
(6.7.2009)
Be Filled With the Holy Spirit
Ephesians 5:18b---be filled with the Spirit. Another portion of Scripture says the same thing, Galatians 5:16a---Walk in the Spirit.
Does your life or your everyday walk manifest the presence of the Holy Spirit of God? This question needs to be asked to all believers. If the answer is no, then you are living in spiritual poverty. God wants your soul to be filled with all of Him so that you can walk as children of the King of Kings should.
Being filled with the Holy Spirit is simply this: Your whole personality must be yielded to His wonderful power. When your soul is yielded to the Holy Spirit, God himself will flood your soul in such a way that you can sing “my cup is full and running over”. Can you think of a better daily walk than being filled with the Holy Spirit?
(7.20.2008)