The following devotions are written and shared weekly by Pastor Steve Harmon.
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Day One
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Luke 15:9-20 teaches us about the use of God’s law. God uses the Word of His law to break us – to bring us to our knees. He uses the law to show us our sin – to cause us to despair of saving ourselves by our works. In love, He uses His law to open our eyes to our need – to help us see that we are drowning in our sin and that we can’t save ourselves. He does that because the other use of His law is to crush sin. If we, by our stubborn rebellion, refuse the gift of God’s mercy because we are too busy trying to prove that we are worthy, then we will be crushed along with the sin. We will be cut off from God because, by our rebellion, we have cut ourselves off from the only escape we have. We have cut ourselves off from Jesus who gave His life so that we could live. The irony of that is Jesus has taken on that penalty for us. He was crushed and cut off in our place. He suffered the torment of hell so that we wouldn’t have to. By faith in Jesus and His saving work, that curse has been lifted from us.
Day Two
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The author of today’s devotion based on John 8:21-30 focused on illusions – first talking about magic tricks that she used to do as a kid and then about Jesus. As with magic tricks, Jesus was not what the people expected the Messiah to be. He was a surprise. But He was no illusion. He was real. He was flesh and blood. He is, as He will tell the religious leaders later in this chapter, the great I AM. He is God in the flesh. He tells them that if they don’t believe that He is who He claims to be, then they will die in their sins. He has come to rescue them from that fate. But they have to believe in Him. Later, Paul will write that we have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. That is our hope and our salvation.
Day Three
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Based on John 8:31-42, today’s devotion focused on Jesus as THE Truth. He is not a truth or someone who speaks truly, He is truth. Everything else is false. If Jesus is THE Truth, then anything that contradicts His Word is false. That would include the temptations of the devil who is called the father of lies. The devil uses the things of this world to turn us from God. He works to get us to put our trust in the things of this world and in the things that we do. Jesus says that if we don’t listen to His Word, we are slaves of sin. If we reject His Word, we reject Jesus. Standing apart from Jesus, we remain slaves of sin and under the dominion of the devil. The only thing that can set us free from that tyranny is Jesus. If we know THE Truth, then THE Truth will set us free. By Jesus’ saving work we are rescued from our slavery to sin. By Jesus’ saving work, we are set free from the devil’s chains. By knowing Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are free to live as children of God
Day Four
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Here in Philippians 3:4b-14, Paul talks about counting all of his works as loss. They no longer go into the ledger as profit. They have gained him nothing in his efforts to prove his worth to God. They have gained him notoriety with men, but not with God. This echoes what he wrote in another letter about boasting in Christ. If he is going to boast, he will boast in Christ and His work done to save Paul (and us) from the power of sin and death. By Jesus’ perfect life, His sacrificial death and His glorious resurrection, He has destroyed the power of sin and death to keep us separated from God.
Salvation is a gift from God. And that becomes something to boast about. While we may not understand completely God’s reasons for giving such a gift, we know that He does. That in itself is a reason to boast. God, the Creator of the universe and all that exists, has given me life and salvation through the saving work of Jesus Christ.
Day Five
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. After reading John 11:45-56 for the hundredth time (at least), it still amazes me that the Jewish leaders can be so blind. Jesus has just raised Lazarus from the dead and they still don’t believe. They still see Jesus as a threat to the peace and stability of the nations rather than the Messiah promised by God. But that’s how unbelief works. They don’t believe the promises of God spoken by the prophets of old and so they can’t believe that Jesus is the Messiah – the Anointed One of God – who will deliver God’s people once again from their slavery to sin. In regards to raising Lazarus from the dead, they probably have come to the same conclusion that they did when Jesus’ tomb was empty. It was some kind of con job. Lazarus didn’t really die. He was just placed in the tomb until Jesus could come and call him out. In their minds, Jesus was a deceiver. But Jesus was indeed the One who would die for the sake of God’s people. He would die so that the whole nation – the Church – would not perish. Jesus said early in John’s Gospel that God sent His only Son into the world so that the world could be saved through Him. The same One who raised Lazarus from the dead has raised us and given us new life by faith in Him – by faith in Jesus and His saving work.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Luke 15:9-20 teaches us about the use of God’s law. God uses the Word of His law to break us – to bring us to our knees. He uses the law to show us our sin – to cause us to despair of saving ourselves by our works. In love, He uses His law to open our eyes to our need – to help us see that we are drowning in our sin and that we can’t save ourselves. He does that because the other use of His law is to crush sin. If we, by our stubborn rebellion, refuse the gift of God’s mercy because we are too busy trying to prove that we are worthy, then we will be crushed along with the sin. We will be cut off from God because, by our rebellion, we have cut ourselves off from the only escape we have. We have cut ourselves off from Jesus who gave His life so that we could live. The irony of that is Jesus has taken on that penalty for us. He was crushed and cut off in our place. He suffered the torment of hell so that we wouldn’t have to. By faith in Jesus and His saving work, that curse has been lifted from us.
Day Two
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The author of today’s devotion based on John 8:21-30 focused on illusions – first talking about magic tricks that she used to do as a kid and then about Jesus. As with magic tricks, Jesus was not what the people expected the Messiah to be. He was a surprise. But He was no illusion. He was real. He was flesh and blood. He is, as He will tell the religious leaders later in this chapter, the great I AM. He is God in the flesh. He tells them that if they don’t believe that He is who He claims to be, then they will die in their sins. He has come to rescue them from that fate. But they have to believe in Him. Later, Paul will write that we have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. That is our hope and our salvation.
Day Three
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Based on John 8:31-42, today’s devotion focused on Jesus as THE Truth. He is not a truth or someone who speaks truly, He is truth. Everything else is false. If Jesus is THE Truth, then anything that contradicts His Word is false. That would include the temptations of the devil who is called the father of lies. The devil uses the things of this world to turn us from God. He works to get us to put our trust in the things of this world and in the things that we do. Jesus says that if we don’t listen to His Word, we are slaves of sin. If we reject His Word, we reject Jesus. Standing apart from Jesus, we remain slaves of sin and under the dominion of the devil. The only thing that can set us free from that tyranny is Jesus. If we know THE Truth, then THE Truth will set us free. By Jesus’ saving work we are rescued from our slavery to sin. By Jesus’ saving work, we are set free from the devil’s chains. By knowing Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are free to live as children of God
Day Four
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Here in Philippians 3:4b-14, Paul talks about counting all of his works as loss. They no longer go into the ledger as profit. They have gained him nothing in his efforts to prove his worth to God. They have gained him notoriety with men, but not with God. This echoes what he wrote in another letter about boasting in Christ. If he is going to boast, he will boast in Christ and His work done to save Paul (and us) from the power of sin and death. By Jesus’ perfect life, His sacrificial death and His glorious resurrection, He has destroyed the power of sin and death to keep us separated from God.
Salvation is a gift from God. And that becomes something to boast about. While we may not understand completely God’s reasons for giving such a gift, we know that He does. That in itself is a reason to boast. God, the Creator of the universe and all that exists, has given me life and salvation through the saving work of Jesus Christ.
Day Five
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. After reading John 11:45-56 for the hundredth time (at least), it still amazes me that the Jewish leaders can be so blind. Jesus has just raised Lazarus from the dead and they still don’t believe. They still see Jesus as a threat to the peace and stability of the nations rather than the Messiah promised by God. But that’s how unbelief works. They don’t believe the promises of God spoken by the prophets of old and so they can’t believe that Jesus is the Messiah – the Anointed One of God – who will deliver God’s people once again from their slavery to sin. In regards to raising Lazarus from the dead, they probably have come to the same conclusion that they did when Jesus’ tomb was empty. It was some kind of con job. Lazarus didn’t really die. He was just placed in the tomb until Jesus could come and call him out. In their minds, Jesus was a deceiver. But Jesus was indeed the One who would die for the sake of God’s people. He would die so that the whole nation – the Church – would not perish. Jesus said early in John’s Gospel that God sent His only Son into the world so that the world could be saved through Him. The same One who raised Lazarus from the dead has raised us and given us new life by faith in Him – by faith in Jesus and His saving work.