Reflections of a lost sheep

  31 May 26 Today's devotional: taken from YouVersion, Devotions on F.I.R.E. Year One Readings: 2 Chronicles 1 2 Chronicles 2 2 Chronicles 3 John 12:1-19 Now Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah (2 Chronicles 3:1).  Are you offering sacrifices worthy of God? A command is given to Abraham centuries before the erecting of the Temple. God said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering” (Genesis 22:2). Two millennia later, another offering would be given in this same location now called Calvary. Yet the sacrifice of Jesus would not be halted. Mary offers a sacrifice in preparation for the death of Jesus just days before his crucifixion. She “took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, [and] anointed the feet of Jesus” (John 12:3). The price of her sacrifice would equal one year’s pay for the average day laborer. Like Abraham, Solomon, and Mary, offer sacrific...

  30 May 26 Today's devotional: taken from YouVersion, Devotions on F.I.R.E. Year One Readings: 1 Chronicles 28 1 Chronicles 29 John 11:47-57 He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it (1 Thessalonians 5:24).  Do you believe that God’s calling is His enabling? Solomon is tasked with a daunting responsibility: He is to build a Temple to house the living God. David makes great preparations for this enormous undertaking. Having personally experienced the Lord’s faithfulness to His promises, the aging king encourages Solomon with sage advice: “Be strong and of good courage, and do it; do not fear nor be dismayed, for the LORD God—my God—will be with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you, until you have finished all the work for the service of the house of the LORD” (1 Chronicles 28:20). It doesn’t matter whether God’s promises to complete a work in us relate to sanctification (1 Thessalonians 5:24) or bringing a ministry assignment to fruition like Solomon received. Hi...

  29 May 26 Today's devotional: taken from YouVersion, Devotions on F.I.R.E. Year One Readings: 1 Chronicles 26 1 Chronicles 27 John 11:18-46 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again” (John 11:23). Do you believe in Jesus’ ability to raise the dead? Job suffers much. Yet he trusts in God’s ability to raise the dead. He shares, “And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God” (Job 19:26). Mary also believes in the future resurrection of the dead; however, Jesus has an immediate resurrection in mind. He assures her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live, and whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26). Friend, do you believe this? Moreover, Paul stresses the importance of the saints’ resurrection. Based upon this truth, he pens, “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57). Employment Point: ...