Beneath These Clothes I Pray Naked Before Thee

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional, Our Nakedness

Do we attempt to hide who we really are from God by covering ourselves in some fashion? Do we pretend to be spiritually in control when in fact we are anything but? Do we tuck our sins away within us where we feel they are safely hidden from God’s eyes? Who are we fooling except ourselves when we believe that God doesn’t know our deepest secrets and see us for who we are? He is God, and knows our every thought and sin, so we shouldn’t be reluctant to bare ourselves openly before him and seek His help in dealing with our nakedness and imperfections; He has known them all along... even those we have tried to hide away in the furthest recesses of our hearts.

Our Inner Struggle and The Eaglet Who Falls from the Nest

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional, The Battle Within

We are creatures of both natural and spiritual construction. It is God’s desire that our natural selves be disciplined, and come under the authority of the spiritual, but that wild and unschooled nature is not a passive student in this transition. Have you gained control over your natural self? Are you waiting for God to make this choice for you? Well, He has His desire in the matter, but the choice remains yours.

Whether in Rags or Riches Do We Obey God’s Will?

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional, Giving our Lives

Have we given up everything we are to Jesus Christ? It is easy to lay down the sinful, and evil things in our lives, but have we also laid down those we have always considered to be good? Abandoning those things to God that we naturally identify as being good and wholesome is the most profound test of our faith. Even though being able to leave behind those things that are sinful and contrary to God’s commandments and desire for us remains the foundation of our faithfulness and obedience.

Eternal Life and the Covenant of Grace

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional, Earning Grace

We can’t enter into heaven and live an eternal life because we deserve it. That kind of thinking is based upon our own vanity and arrogance. Our salvation and everlasting life is sealed by covenant alone, and that covenant of grace comes only by our belief in God’s acceptance of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as our blood sacrifice and atonement for sin. Only through Jesus can we be redeemed, forgiven, perfected, and sanctified. Only through Him can we truly claim the covenant of God’s grace.

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.

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