Obedience, and taming the strong willed child in us

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , God’s Will , Easter

Do we place our will ahead of the will of God? Do we feel that what we want for our life should have a greater weight than what God would have us do? To dispel this notion we needn’t look any further than Jesus as He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, and the words He spoke regarding the subjugation of His will to God’s. We all have a personal will for our lives just as Jesus did when He prayed, but as children of God, and having placed Him above all else, then His will becomes master over everything in our life... even our own will, and greatest desires.

Born Again to bear much Fruit

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Born Again

By the spiritual death of our old selves in Christ we are made to rise again, and to embrace eternal life. This is a cycle of life, death, and rebirth which is repeated many times over throughout God’s creation, and this is the template we were born to follow. We die as one person to sin, but by our death, and subsequent rebirth, we are raised a new creation, and give rise to many others who will follow us and be born in the image of God, and reborn into the perfection of His righteousness... just as we have been.

Release the Child bound within you, and Worship in Childlike Fullness

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Childlike Faith

When Jesus speaks a truth to our heart, or God reveals Himself to us by showing us his will for us, how do we receive them? Do we study what they have for us as we try to reconcile it to our existing lives, or do we accept it just as it is delivered... in all of its wonder, awe, and even mystery? How sad it is that so many believers have lost the open receptiveness that faith demands, and have allowed their need for “mature” understanding to overcome the trust, amazement, and acceptance of a child in their spiritual lives.

Receiving Discipleship and Eternity in Heaven, can we pay the price?

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Discipleship , Eternity

Do you want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? Do you want to spend eternity in heaven with God our Father? Well, discipleship and eternity with God come at an extremely high price, and there is no amount of bargaining that can reduce the cost. The price includes great hardship, suffering, and sacrifices, and will strain us beyond our natural ability. Yet, the real question isn’t whether we have the full fare, and determination, but whether we are willing to pay this price at all, because it takes everything we have.

Even during Pandemic, Victory over Death is Trustworthy and True

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Victory over Death

In this time of pandemic we have had our eyes fixed dramatically on dying, and many of us have watched as our loved ones have wasted away until death finally claimed them, and they were committed to the ground. Some of us are mortally struggling for our own lives right now, but although the prospect of recovering our health might often seem bleak, take heart, because as Christians, we have already won victory over death in Christ... not bodily, but eternally in our inner spiritual selves. Each day as our health dwindles away, the eyes of our soul are opened wider to our faith, and the peace of God draws nearer.

Losing our Lives during our Precious Journey of Faith

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Losing our Lives

In following the course of our faith in Jesus Christ have we lost our life? I am not talking about martyrs who lose their physical lives, but every believer who will have lost his sinful nature... those things of the world that entice us away from God, or make us lukewarm in His mouth. Jesus is very specific about our need to do this... and about our speaking, and living out our lives as new creatures. How tight are we holding onto our old, and often pleasurable, life in the world? How do we judge the old from the new?

Lending to God in Mercy and Grace

Richard Forbes
Christian , Degree, Daily Devotional , Lending to God

We spend a great deal of our prayer time asking God to do things for us, and the bulk of the remainder in thanking Him for what He has already done. Then, we go about our day, and dedicate most of our waking hours to fending for ourselves by working, or following other worldly pursuits. So, today let’s ask ourselves if there is anything that we can possibly give to God, the creator of all things, and look for ways we can give something, anything, to Him... just as He has so often given to us.

Peace and Victory; this is the view from our Cross

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Victory in Jesus

After becoming Christians do we still feel threatened by the world? Do we allow what is in the world to have any remnant of undefeated rule over us? As victors in Christ, what more can the world do to us that we mustn’t grant it the power to do? On the cross Jesus overcame the world, and as He did, we overcame it as well. So now we must ask ourselves... are we living out the victorious life that has already been won for us? Do we realize that death has no dominion over us, and that fear is banished from us by the love of God?

Loving Jesus, and Feeding His Sheep... as our very personal chore

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Intimate Relationship

Do we look up at the cross and upon seeing Jesus dying there do we think “He is doing this for all of mankind.”? This is a true thought, but Jesus didn’t simply die for “mankind”... He suffered, died, and was resurrected for you and me individually. Until we realize that His relationship isn’t limited to the grand notion of a tribe, nation, people, or even the world, we can’t possibly understand how intimate our salvation is, and that He abides fully in each of us.

Living our Life like Jesus

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional ,

Do we desire to be more like Jesus with each passing day, and if so do we really know what He was like? Sometimes we think we know Him when we don’t; we take a human trait that we personally admire and attribute it to Him, but as we do so we are elevating Him in our own minds. When we do this we are in fact glorifying ourselves by modifying Jesus to accommodate an image we have of ourselves.

Is Jesus just another Temple Lamb without blemish or spot?

Richard Forbes
Christian , A Curse

Paul tells the Galatians that Jesus redeemed them by becoming a curse for them. This is strong language and we prefer to say that He took on our sins so that we might be redeemed and forgiven. This milder expression is true, but by using the gentler language we are sidestepping the harsher reality of what happened to Him here... He not only took on the legality of having sinned, but He assumed the horror, flagrant filthiness, terror, and terrible evil of sin as well... He became the fullness of sin... He became the curse for us.

Without flowers there can be no fruit.

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Bearing Fruit

According to the gospel of Jesus, He is the vine and we are the branches of that vine, and being branches, we are to bear the fruit. This is a beautiful image and over the years much has been said, taught, and written about the attributes of the fruit, and what it means for us to bear that fruit. However, today let’s talk about what adorns us as branches before the fruit arrives, and the role we ultimately play in bring forth this fruit... let’s behold the flowers. Not all fruit is good to eat alone, and likewise, not all flowers are beautiful, or smell sweet, but we can tell what fruit we will eventually bear by the flowers that bloom on our stems.

Blessed are those who mourn, and the Comfort of God

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Mourning

We go to funerals of friends and family with hearts aching, or broken, suffering in our loss, but in times such as this we are led back to the Sermon on the Mount, and the words that Jesus delivered in the Beatitudes... specifically the second of these when He said: “Blessed are those who mourn.” Our tears are never to be held back, nor is our pain to be trivialized because in this place and at this time we are to receive the comfort of God.

Preparing the ground we sow our seeds of faith on

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Preparing for Faith

In the parable of the Sower, we see that the success of our faith is being compared to the growth of seeds, and that their bounty depends on the soil on which they are sown. So today we need to look at the quality of the soil where our faith is being planted. Some of us feel that we have been walked on all our lives, and that we are too hardened to ever accept faith; some feel that our lives have been rocky and we are too course and lacking of goodness for faith, and some see nothing but briars and weeds surrounding us and think we are unsuitable for faith, so we feel lost before we start... but all is not lost, and there is hope for us all.

Together we find strength in God, Faith in Christ, and encouragement against sin

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Gathering Together

As many churches meet remotely due to COVID-19 we are tempted by Zoom meetings to continue coming together in this way, but as we walk the path of our faith we often find ourselves confronted by temptation and evil along the way, and facing these challenges alone is a frightening prospect. We are at our weakest when by ourselves, and that is precisely why Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness; he felt his best chance to overcome Him was while He was wandering by Himself, but in reality Jesus was never alone, and neither are we... God is with us always.

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