Tag Archives: salvation

Unmoved, enduring, eternal (Psalm 125) November 27, 2015

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – Psalms 125

Set – Psalms 125; Matthew 27

Go! – Psalms 125; Matthew 26-27

Psalms 125
1 All who have faith in the Eternal stand as Mount Zion:
unmoved, enduring, eternal.
2 Just as the mountains around Jerusalem embrace her,
the Eternal, too, wraps around those who belong to Him—
for this moment and for every moment to come.
3 For wickedness will not get the upper hand;
it shall not rule the land where righteous people live
Lest good people go bad
and do what is wrong.
4 Be good, Eternal One, to those who are good,
to those who are filled with integrity.
5 The Eternal will send all the wicked away
along with those who pervert what’s good and twist it in their own crooked way.
May peace be with Israel.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

David wrote his song before you built your monster machines. He would probably still write that those who have faith in Me are unmoving, enduring, and eternal like Mount Zion. But I know that you are more solid and eternal than even Mount Zion. Monster machines can cut through the rock and soil that constitutes Mount Zion and eventually it could move the mountain from one place to another. But it would take years to do it with all of the equipment currently available on earth.

For all intents and purposes Mount Zion is immovable to you. It will last forever as far as you’re concerned. But it won’t. A day will come, sooner than you think, when Mount Zion will be crushed. It will melt away in My wrath as the world as you know it disappears. But you, your immortal soul will endure with Me forever. It is eternal, unmovable, enduring, just as David says.

It might seem that now the wicked have the upper hand as you look around the world and see the graft and corruption in society. You might think they have the pleasures of life and you are left with nothing when you follow My commands and live the life I ask you to live. But the truth dispels such lies. Wealth does not bring satisfaction. Wealth and riches do not bring joy or peace. The temporary pleasures of this life are just that, temporary. There comes a day of reckoning at which the wicked must account for their ways and they too endure forever, but so does their punishment.

For those who have faith in Me, I am eternally good to them. They endure for ever, too. My goodness lasts forever as they live with Me in My home. Those who put their faith in Me enjoy My presence and My eternal rewards. I’ve been preparing them a long time. I know what pleases you, but what will please you most is just being in My presence, rejoicing in the company of the other saints, praising Me throughout eternity.

The only ones who will be there are those who follow Me. Only those obedient to My will make it to My home. The wicked will never cross its threshold. I will not allow the wicked into My presence and they will never bother you again when you join Me in paradise. What a glorious time we will have together. You must make the decision now, though. Today is the day of salvation. 

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Don’t let prejudice get in the way (Galatians 3:15-29), November 6, 2015

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – Galatians 3:15-29

Set – Psalms 120; Galatians 3

Go! – Job 30-31; Psalms 120; Galatians 3-4

Galatians 3:15-29
15 My dear brothers and sisters, here’s a real-life example I can give you: With a last will and testament, when all the property is accounted for, the document is signed, witnessed, and notarized; and afterward no one can make changes to it. 16 In a similar way, God’s promises established a binding agreement with Abraham and his offspring. In the Scriptures, it is carefully stated, “and to your descendant” (meaning one), not “and to your descendants” (meaning many). Therefore, in these covenant promises, God was not referring to every son and daughter born into Abraham’s family but to the Anointed One to come. 17 What this all means is that the law given to Israel comes along some 430 years after the promise made to Abraham; so it does not invalidate the covenant God previously agreed to or in any way do away with His promise. 18 You see, if the law became the sole basis for the inheritance, then it would put God in the position of breaking a covenant because He had promised it to Abraham.
19 Now you’re asking yourselves, “So why did God give us the law?” God commanded His heavenly messengers to deliver it into the hand of a mediator for this reason: to help us rein in our sins until the Offspring, about whom the promise was made in the first place, would come. 20 A mediator represents more than one, but God is only one. 21 “So,” you ask, “does the law contradict God’s promise?” Absolutely not! Never was there written a law that could lead to resurrection and life; if there had been, then surely we could have experienced saving righteousness through keeping the law. But we haven’t. 22 Scripture has subjected the whole world to sin’s power so that the faithful obedience of Jesus the Anointed might extend God’s promises to everyone who has faith. 23 Before faith came on the scene, the law did its best to keep us in line, restraining us until the faith that was to come was fully revealed. 24 So then, the law was like a tutor, assigned to train us and point us to the Anointed, so that we will be acquitted of all wrong and made right by faith. 25 But now that true faith has come, we have no need for a tutor. 26 It is your faith in the Anointed Jesus that makes all of you children of God 27 because all of you who have been initiated into the Anointed One through the ceremonial washing of baptism have put Him on. 28 It makes no difference whether you are a Jew or a Greek, a slave or a freeman, a man or a woman, because in Jesus the Anointed, the Liberating King, you are all one. 29 Since you belong to Him and are now subject to His power, you are the descendant of Abraham and the heir of God’s glory according to the promise.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

Paul reminds you I am the God of all people. It doesn’t matter the color of your skin, the language you speak, the country of your birth. I am your God. Whether you bow to Me our not, I am still your God. One day you will bow, but I trust you do so now. Those who believe in Me for the forgiveness of their sins, will never die, but will live with Me forever. Those who do not, will forever live alone in eternal punishment.

Since I’m the God of all people, shouldn’t you also love all people? Everywhere, I see the prejudice of humankind rising. I had hoped with increased knowledge through the centuries that you would learn to get along with each other, but it hasn’t proven true. Instead, increased knowledge seems to increase the prejudice between you. Races and nations continue to debate the superiority and inferiority of one another. Each touts its own prowess over others wanting to gain more instead of being satisfied with what I have given them.

Humankind has forgotten you have what you have because I allow it. I made you and gave you the abilities and talents resident within you. I gave you the lands you occupy. I gave you the minerals, the environmental conditions, the wealth or lack thereof. I gave you the opportunities to serve others. The question is what you have done with the things I gave you. But I am still your God. And I can take away all you have gained. With a flood, a wildfire, a hurricane or tornado all can be lost in an instant. And I control them all. Remember, I am your God.

Put your faith in Me. Remember I can give and I can take away. There is no need for prejudices. I made all humankind and everything I make is good. Every race, every nation, every person I make is good. Each person then creates their own choices and pathways, but I make them good originally. Share My word with everyone. Love everyone. Share My grace and mercy with everyone. Don’t let prejudices get in the way. 

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

The role God plays (Hebrews 9:11-28), July 12, 2015

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – Hebrews 9:11-28

Set – Isaiah 11; Hebrews 9

Go! – Isaiah 11-14; Hebrews 9

Hebrews 9:11-28
11 When the Anointed One arrived as High Priest of the good things that are to come, He entered through a greater and more perfect sanctuary that was not part of the earthly creation or made by human hands. 12 He entered once for all time into the most holy place—entering, not with the blood of goats or calves or some other prescribed animal, but offering His own blood and thus obtaining redemption for us for all time. 13 Think about it: if the blood of bulls or of goats, or the sprinkling of ashes from a heifer, restores the defiled to bodily cleanliness and wholeness; 14 then how much more powerful is the blood of the Anointed One, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself as a spotless sacrifice to God, purifying your conscience from the dead things of the world to the service of the living God?
15 This is why Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant: through His death, He delivered us from the sins that we had built up under the first covenant, and His death has made it possible for all who are called to receive God’s promised inheritance. 16 For whenever there is a testament—a will—the death of the one who made it must be confirmed 17 because a will takes effect only at the death of its maker; it has no validity as long as the maker is still alive. 18 Even the first testament—the first covenant—required blood to be put into action. 19 When Moses had given all the laws of God to the people, he took the blood of calves and of goats, water, hyssop, and scarlet wool; and he sprinkled the scroll and all the people, 20 telling them, “This is the blood of the covenant that God has commanded for us.” 21 In the same way, he also sprinkled blood upon the sanctuary and upon the vessels used in worship. 22 Under the law, it’s almost the case that everything is purified in connection with blood; without the shedding of blood, sin cannot be forgiven.
23 Since what was given in the old covenant was the earthly sketch of the heavenly reality, this was sufficient to cleanse the earthly sanctuary; but in heaven, a more perfect sacrifice was needed. 24 The Anointed One did not enter into handcrafted sacred spaces—imperfect copies of heavenly originals—but into heaven itself, where He stands in the presence of God on our behalf. 25 There He does not offer Himself over and over as a sacrifice (as the high priest on earth does when he enters the most holy place each year with blood other than his own) 26 because that would require His repeated suffering since the beginning of the world. No, He has appeared once now, at the end of the age, to put away sin forever by offering Himself as a sacrifice.
27 Just as mortals are appointed to die once and then to experience a judgment, 28 so the Anointed One, our Liberating King, was offered once in death to bear the sins of many and will appear a second time, not to deal again with sin, but to rescue those who eagerly await His return.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

I gave Moses a poor copy of the sacred spaces of My sanctuary. The tabernacle and all its implements held a special place in the lives of the Israelites as they wandered in the desert and in the young nation as it established itself in the promised land. The Temple Solomon built with all its grandeur still stood as a poor example of My throne room in heaven. But the plans and the space set aside for My worship did help people understand My holiness. The separate place for devotion to Me was cleaner than the rest of the city. Its water purer, the implements stronger and better made. The altar glittered from the bronze cleaned every morning and the gold within the enclosure reflected the brilliant rays of the sun wherever you gazed.

Even with all the bronze, silver, and gold in the tabernacle and Temple, the spaces were but poor examples of the glory of heaven. Nothing on earth compares to the beauty that surrounds Me continuously. A very few have glimpsed corners of heaven and are always unable to describe it. The colors, the sounds, the smells, the feelings, the beauty is absolutely beyond anything you can imagine.

That’s what I gave up to become your sacrifice. Nothing could atone for you like My blood. So I gave it freely so you could live. The imitation of the glories of heaven wouldn’t work. The imitation of pure and perfect sacrifices would work. The imitation of atonement wouldn’t work. So I gave myself. I came as the perfect sacrifice for your sins. I came as your high priest and gave myself. That’s the love I have for you. Only one Man could serve as the perfect high priest, Me, God wrapped in human flesh. Only one Man could be your perfect sacrifice, Me, God wrapped in human flesh. Only one God loves enough to become the One Man who would do it all for you. Me.

Think about the role I play in your salvation. What I gave up for you so you can be freed from the chains of sin. Then ask yourself if you have given yourself to Me as fully. If not, today can be the day you give yourself wholly to Me. I’ll take you just like you are. 

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Think about this! (Romans 5:1-11), May 24, 2015

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Today’s Podcast


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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – Romans 5:1-11
Set – 1 Kings 9; Romans 5
Go! – 1 Kings 9; 2 Chronicles 8; Psalms 136; Romans 5

Romans 5:1-11
1 Since we have been acquitted and made right through faith, we are able to experience true and lasting peace with God through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the Liberating King. 2 Jesus leads us into a place of radical grace where we are able to celebrate the hope of experiencing God’s glory. 3 And that’s not all. We also celebrate in seasons of suffering because we know that when we suffer we develop endurance, 4 which shapes our characters. When our characters are refined, we learn what it means to hope and anticipate God’s goodness. 5 And hope will never fail to satisfy our deepest need because the Holy Spirit that was given to us has flooded our hearts with God’s love.

6 When the time was right, the Anointed One died for all of us who were far from God, powerless, and weak. 7 Now it is rare to find someone willing to die for an upright person, although it’s possible that someone may give up his life for one who is truly good. 8 But think about this: while we were wasting our lives in sin, God revealed His powerful love to us in a tangible display—the Anointed One died for us. 9 As a result, the blood of Jesus has made us right with God now, and certainly we will be rescued by Him from God’s wrath in the future. 10 If we were in the heat of combat with God when His Son reconciled us by laying down His life, then how much more will we be saved by Jesus’ resurrection life? 11 In fact, we stand now reconciled and at peace with God. That’s why we celebrate in God through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

How often do you do what Paul asks? Stop and think about this: while you were wasting your life in sin, I revealed My powerful love to you in a tangible display – I died for you. As a result, My blood has made you right with Me now, and certainly you will be rescued from My wrath in the future.

It’s good to stop and contemplate just what I’ve done for you every once in a while. What you could not do for yourself, I did for you. It was impossible for you to make yourself right with Me. Nothing you could do could cleanse you from the sin imbedded deep within your soul. You thought evil thoughts. You committed evil deeds. You bent toward evil all the time. Your selfish nature sprang out from everywhere. Nothing you could do could stop it because you inherited that trait from your parents from the time of Adam and Eve.

But I came into the world to save you from yourself. I came to free you from the cycle of sin in which you found yourself. I came to show you a new and better way to live. I came to introduce you to the way of love of God and mankind. I came to pay the penalty for your crimes against Me. I came to take your punishment and redeem you. I came to adopt you as My own.

Do you ever stop and just think about what I’ve done for you? And I did it not while you were behaving well, but while you were still a sinner, lost, separated from Me. I did it while you were hopeless and without any means of salvation. I did it because I love you and wanted you to be near Me. I did just for you. Do you ever stop and think about that?

Do you ever stop and think about what I gave up for you? I left the splendor of heaven for 33 years and became human for you. I left the perfection of heaven and lived among the squalor of the human race. Lived in the poverty of a single, widowed mother with My brothers and sisters just trying to eke out a meager existence until I could begin My mission to save you from your sins. I gave up My glory. I gave up My throne. I gave up the angels singing My praise and meeting My every desire. I gave it all up to become like you. I endured all the suffering of humanity. I became sin. I died to save you from dying. Do you ever stop and think about that?

Paul asked you to think about what I’ve done for you. Put it on your calendar. Make a sticky note and put it where you can see it. Put a bookmark in your Bible. Make yourself a reminder somewhere to just stop every once in a while and think about what I’ve done for you.

While you were wasting your life in sin, I revealed My powerful love to you in a tangible display – I died for you. As a result, My blood has made you right with Me now, and certainly you will be rescued from My wrath in the future. So what will you do now?

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

I made you (Genesis 2:4-25), Jan 1, 2015

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Welcome to Walk with Me a daily devotional taking us through the bible, spoken in a way God might speak to us as he spoke to Adam and Eve walking through the Garden of Eden.

Today I share with you from the story of your creation. I made you from the dirt of the ground, sculpted you into your human shape, breathed into your nostrils the breath of eternal life giving you a living soul.

I planted you in the garden in the east of Eden, a place of utter delight, a place bursting with life, nourishing food and luxuriant beauty. I created trees and in the center of the garden I placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

I put you in the garden to care for it and gave you one command. Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I wanted to spare you of its deadly effects. I wanted you to enjoy life to its fullest and not know the pains of evil and death.

I made a companion for you from your own flesh. Not subservient to you, but to stand beside you and complete you. The woman made from your flesh and bone became your perfect companion, a perfect partner. And for this reason, men will leave their fathers and mothers and unite with their wives throughout the ages and the two will become one flesh again.

Families will be the cornerstone of great societies for all time. Families are the bedrock of community. I invite you to join my family as we walk and talk together.

Ready – Genesis 2:4-25
Set – Genesis 2; Luke 1:26-66
Go – Genesis 1-2; Luke 1

Genesis 2:4-24
Adam and Eve
4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.

5 Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth[a] and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, 6 but streams[b] came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. 7 Then the Lord God formed a man[c] from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin[d] and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush.[e] 14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.

But for Adam[f] no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs[g] and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib[h] he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

23 The man said,

“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”
24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.