Coffee Stains and the New Covenant through Christ

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional, Accepting The New Covenant

Are you in a covenant relationship with God? Have you accepted the blood of Jesus Christ as affirmation of that covenant? Has God’s grace and forgiveness of sin through the sacrifice of Jesus become your blood offering that has signed and sealed this covenant? We see the cross and say “this is the covenant”, but it is only a sign. We see the rending of the temple curtain and say “this is the covenant”, but it is only a sign. We see the empty tomb and say “this is the covenant”, but it too is only a sign. The covenant is forgiveness, and the blood of Jesus is the offering that inaugurates it. Is the blood of Jesus upon you as God’s seal?

Our Body: an Ugly Place Made Glorious and Holy

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional, Christian Transformation

Do you have your body under control? Have you let yourself separate your spirituality of nature from the physical manifestation of that faith within your body itself? By this I am not asking if you treat yourself as a narcissist, but if you do those things that are godly and good with yourself, and treat your body as a temple of the Holy Spirit?  Our spiritual and physical selves walk hand in hand with our faith, and it is by God’s will that we find the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit within our physical bodies.

Trouble; Our Inoculation against Sin

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional, Strength in the Storms

Are you concerned because you are constantly at war within yourself? Does it bother you that there is a struggle going on inside you between good and evil, holy and unholy, or salvation and damnation? Well, take heart because although this conflict is the natural state of man, we have a champion who not only helps us realize the good within ourselves, but helps us to achieve it by defeating sin.

Fear, Trembling, and the “Ah Ha!” Moments of Faith

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional, understanding God

Do you depend on your own intellect to search out the wisdom of God? Do you study and ponder scripture to find truth there, or do you alternatively use your intellect to spoon feed yourself His Word, while your spirit communes with the Holy Ghost to seek and sift it for those things that are of God? When we depend upon our own wisdom it brings us very few of those wonderful revelations that we recognize as being the hidden treasures of the Lord , but when our spirit is engaged with the Holy Ghost, that treasure is revealed to us from His most glorious depths.

Fishing: Is It All About Catching Fish?

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional, Fishing With God

Are we approaching our faith through study and hard work to further perfect ourselves each day? Every evening during our prayers do we kneel before God and tell Him of our intellectual progress? If this is so, and it is our primary motivation, He will speak words similar to these back to us; “Yes, but when I walked in the garden this evening where were you?” or “As I have loved you, do you love me?” God wants our journey towards spiritual perfection to be a manifestation of our relationship with Him, and our liturgical and theological perfection in the classroom to be secondary to His ultimate goal which is loving us and seeing that we love Him too.

Is Death a Mystery that Baffles Us?

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional, Death’s Mystery

In the eyes of our God who created the universe, breathed life into man, and on more than one occasion raised the dead... what is death? As humans we are so small, and our experience is so limited to this body and this existence, that all of our understanding of life and death are founded on this little slice of reality that we inhabit. So, as we look at our life and death through this drinking straw that is our world view, we convince ourselves that we know what death is; but do we? Let’s take a higher-level look at death...

Are We Being Humble, or Denying God in Our Faith?

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional, Humble Before God

God works within us every day. He brings us to the doorstep of His will and then perfects us as our efforts join with His in accomplishing it. However, none of our achievements are possible without His efforts in us, and none is possible by our own doing. So, when His will is done in some manner how do we respond to others as they acknowledge it in gratitude or amazement? Do we take the credit ourselves, or humbly give him all the glory for what His grace has brought forth by our obedience?

Jesus is Our Yea, Amen, and the Essence of Faith

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional, God Is Truth

Do you understand that Jesus Christ had to die in order to secure your redemption, or do you think that He was just a mythological character meant to describe morality to us in a how-to book called the Bible? Friends, let me assure you that the account is real, and not just a story; it is the single greatest event to occur since creation... and is complete with all the miracles, wonders, suffering, awe, and yes, death that we read about in scripture.

Venture into the World, a Lifeline to Those in Sin

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional, Venturing Out

Do we think that by withdrawing from the world, by separating ourselves, that we will become more pious and that this will help us to consecrate ourselves by removing all temptation? Well, this is a false hope, and if we look at the gospel of Jesus we understand that He inserted Himself fully into the world and wants us to remain in the world also. He didn’t run from it but overcame it.

Feral Man, and the Loving Hand of God

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional, Transforming the Feral Man

When we first meet Him, God doesn’t just rush into our lives, He treats us much like I learned to treat stray or feral dogs and cats when I was a boy. When I met an animal for the first time I would approach it very slowly, and when I noticed that it was getting nervous or was preparing to run I’d stop; all the while I was speaking to it in a soft and reassuring voice. This is very similar to how God approaches us before He reaches out His hand towards us.

Fretting Needlessly about the World as it Crumbles

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional, Crumbling World

Do we let the happenings of the world trouble us and destroy the faith, peace, and tranquility we have in Jesus Christ? Are we so worried about what is occurring in our day to day lives that we can no longer see or feel the eternal truth, which is that Jesus suffered so we should be redeemed; that we should have peace and rest? If so it is time we started stripping the meaningless outer layers away from our life in the world and get down to the one thing that truly matters... our faith in the Cross.

Our Calling, and God’s Fingers in the Soil of our Faith

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional, Being Called

When the Lord gives us a specific calling or mission that He wants us to accomplish, how do we know when it, or our part in it, is complete? Have you ever left spiritual business unfinished because you took your eyes off the Lord? Whether it is praying for someone each day, being a loving spouse, serving in a far-off land, or simply mowing the yard for a sick neighbor; when does stopping what we were once called to do become a matter of God’s will, as opposed to our own reluctance, fear, or lack of desire to continue on?

Little Gifts, and Heavenly Treasures

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional, Tiny Gifts

As we look about ourselves today, what do we identify as being our distractions from achieving a fullness of faith, and what are those things that bless us most as we seek out the Lord? When we begin our prayers this morning what will we thank God for, and what will we ask Him to help us to overcome? Sometimes we find that we are blessed most with the little things in our lives... and that it is a myriad of small, seemingly insignificant, sins that rob us of the peace and joy of believing that we seek.

Defeating Religious Arrogance, and Finding God in the Commonplace

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional, Living Life Fully

Do people we associate with consider us to be arrogant or conceited men and women of faith? By this I mean, do we present ourselves in faith as being stuffy, academically aloof, or “better than you” Christians? If we are like this or are more interested in appearing righteous than actually being righteous, then it is time that we wake up. Jesus was born a humble carpenter’s son and lived a common life despite being anything but common.

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