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No Other Name!

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No Other Name!

Life Lessons Devotional Series, Tuesday May 9, 2023

Scripture: Acts 4: ⁸ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! ⁹ If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, ¹⁰ then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. ¹¹ Jesus is

“‘the stone you builders rejected,
    which has become the cornerstone.’

¹² Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

Life Lesson: The name of Jesus is the most invoked name in the history of humanity.  Derided by sinners and hallowed by believers, the name of Jesus is truly incomparable, synonymous with power, authority, and salvation!

– The above text tells us Peter spoke by the infilling of the Holy Spirit when standing before the rulers and elders. 

– Jesus had previously prophesied to His disciples regarding such a time as this saying, Luke 12: ¹¹ “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, ¹² for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”

– Just as Peter had been filled with the Holy Spirit in pronouncing miraculous healing on the man who had been born lame at the Gate Beautiful, so too Peter relied on the empowering of the Holy Spirit as he stood before the elders of Israel in defense of the ministry God had called him into.  Christian, we need the empowering of the Spirit to be effective witnesses!

– The words fashioned by man can have a semblance of authority but the message proclaimed through the empowering of the Spirit is transformational!  The lame man was healed in the name of Jesus!  Peter uttered the words but the power to transform the man was from God! 

– Likewise, the same Peter who had recently denied any knowledge of, or relationship with Jesus Christ in an effort to save his life, now stood before the same leaders who had used their authority to execute Christ, and boldly proclaimed not only his knowledge of the Christ but also his undying faith in the authority of Jesus Christ to save! 

– Like the lame man, Peter had also experienced the transforming power and authority of Jesus Christ in his own life!  “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

The Lord Will Fight for You!

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The Lord Will Fight for You!

Life Lessons Devotional Series, Monday May 8, 2023

Scripture: Exodus 14 ¹³ Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. ¹⁴ The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

Life Lesson: “The Lord will fight for you” was, is, and will forever be a sure foundation for the people of God!  If God is for us who can be against us!? 

– I wonder how many of us struggle with the belief that God will fight for us?  Like the Israelites we find it more natural to fear and be afraid than to embrace God’s promise that He will fight for us.

– The truth is God has already moved heaven and earth for our salvation.  The Incarnation was no little event, in fact it was prophesied from the beginning, Gen. 3:15.  God waited thousands of years to intervene decisively for humanity, yet all the while providing the means by which God’s divine intervention would come to pass. 

– No one, not even the devil himself truly comprehended it!  Will God fight for us?  Yes, He will!  Yes, He has and yes, He is fighting for us!  And you want to hear something truly incredible?  The outcome of the fight has already been decided!  We have been made more than conquerors by faith in Christ Jesus!  The victory is ours through faith!

– Nothing has been left to chance!  God has given us His promises and God’s promises are always yes and amen in Christ Jesus! 

– Moses told the people to be still.  Later on, God inspired the psalmist to record, “Be still and know that I am God, psalm 46:10. Being still is not inactivity.  To be still in obedience to the Word of God involves actively waiting upon the Lord, seeking the Lord, and moving forward by faith in the Word of the Lord. 

– Recall that following the exhortation God spoke through Moses for the Israelites to be still, they then had to move forward by faith into the midst of the waters and continue moving forward to the other side of the Red Sea.  In order for them to truly, be still by trusting in God they also had to move forward by faith.

– Be still and believe that the Lord is fighting for you!  Move forward by faith in the promises of the Lord God Almighty!

Stand Firm and You Will See the Deliverance of…

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Life Lessons Devotional Series, Thursday May 4, 2023

Scripture: Exodus 14 ¹³ Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. ¹⁴ The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

Life Lesson: Moses’ exhortation to “fear not” is one that speaks to every believer regardless of geography, historical context or pedigree.  However, the exhortation to “fear not” comes with another exhortation, to stand firm in our faith!

– The Israelites believed they had every reason to quake with fear given the fact that they had a sea of water on their one side and an enraged Egyptian army charging down on them on the other.  How is it then that Moses can tell his people to not be afraid?  How could they respond any other way to such an impossible situation that threatened immanent death? 

– Put yourself in their place if you dare. How do you think you might respond to Moses’ message?  As an escaping Israelite you believed that God had finally set you free from your enslavement to the Egyptians.  You were on your way to what you believed was freedom!  

– But now, not long after you left Egypt, you find yourself in the worst possible situation you could have imagined.  A situation that offered no possible natural solution!  Did God really set you free only to lead you and your family to certain death?  What about all those plagues on the Egyptians that resulted in your being released? Did God strike down Pharaoh’s firstborn son only to later on allow him to hunt you down and unleash his vengeance?!   

– In your mind, this makes no sense! Deliverer?  God has delivered me and my family over to death!  Your mind races with thoughts of why you ever left Egypt in the first place, why you trusted the Moses message of God’s deliverance.  O, that I had kept my family in Egypt where at least we had some semblance of a life.  But this!  This right here is nothing but madness! 

– Then Moses tells you, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.”  Deliverance?  My eyes do not see any possibility of deliverance!  My mind knows with certainty that I’m a dead man!  But the man of God, the man of faith, lifts his eyes and staff heavenward!  Somehow, he is not concerned with the Egyptian army that is charging at them.  Moses declares with conviction that the salvation of the Lord is at hand!  And what does he say we must do?  He says that we must stand firm!  I can barely stand at all!  But the Word of the Lord assures me that if I stand firm, I will see His salvation!  God’s Word makes us promises that to us, at times, seem impossible!  The glory of God is revealed when God does the impossible!  Stand firm in your faith and you will see the deliverance of the Lord!

Live in the Power of Christ and Offer that…

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Life Lessons Devotional Series, Wednesday May 3, 2023

Scripture: Acts 3 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. ² Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. ³ When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. ⁴ Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” ⁵ So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.

⁶ Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” ⁷ Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. ⁸ He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. ⁹ When all the people saw him walking and praising God, ¹⁰ they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

Life Lesson: While the world might look at you wondering what you plan to do to meet their momentary felt needs, let me remind you that the greatest gift you possess is your knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and His power to not only temporarily provide but to literally transform a life for all eternity! 

– Peter and John were on their way to prayer.  Great and wonderful things can happen as we collectively pray together!  Where two or more are gathered together in the Lord’s name He is there in the midst! 

– Prayer is not just an opportunity to bring our laundry list of requests before the throne.  Through prayer we commune with God!  God is the Source of our life, our love, our strength and our power!  God not only changes the lives of others through Prayer, He can change our lives as well as we pray!

– Answers to prayer are often times discovered in prayer!  Just think of the miracles that have happened as God people prayed!  People like Moses, Elijah, Elisha, Hannah, David, Solomon, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, Esther, Anna, Peter, John, Paul and the list goes on!

– Yes, the world will ask, “What have you done for us lately?”  But our concern ought to always be, “What does the Lord want to do in me and through me for the world!”  Get your eyes off of what people say they think they need and get your heart fixed on what the Lord has made possible for all who believe!  Just think of the great loss if Peter and John had reached deep into their pockets and threw some coins at this man instead of responding through the power and enabling of the Spirit!  Let me also say this, our corrupt and perverse secular society has done a marvelous job of making believers think that offering sinners the truths of God’s Word is to offer them nothing!  Don’t believe it!  Live in the power of Christ and offer that to the world!

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Life Lessons Devotional Series, Tuesday May 2, 2023

Scripture: Gen. 32: ²² That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. ²³ After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. ²⁴ So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. ²⁵ When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. ²⁶ Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” ²⁷ The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered.

²⁸ Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” ²⁹ Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there. ³⁰ So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.” ³¹ The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. ³² Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.

Life Lesson: The boldness of Jacob in holding on through the night and refusing to let go until he was blessed, profoundly illustrates for us the tenacity in prayer that is essential for any believer who is wrestling through the conflicts in life!

– Jacob knew he was going to soon encounter his brother Esau, and that encounter posed a very real and dangerous threat not only to him personally but also to all that he owned or held dear. 

– Jacob had just fled his father-in-law with all he possessed and that act meant that he was also targeted by him as well.  God had supernaturally spared Jacob from Laban’s wrath, but now there lay ahead of him an even greater and more formidable threat.

– Therefore, Jacob got alone with God.  Many of us pace and worry, call a friend or imagine things we might do or say; but Jacob sent all he had across the stream and remained alone to wrestle through the night in prayer.

– Have you ever thought of prayer as a wrestling match?  The prophet Isaiah wrote under inspiration of the Lord, Isa. 62: ⁶ I have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest, ⁷ and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth.  

– What we can glean from such passages is that the Lord welcomes this kind of tenacious zeal in our praying.  The great hymn writer Charles Wesley penned these words in his song Soldiers of Christ Arise, “From strength to strength go on; Wrestle and fight and pray; Tread all the powers of darkness down, And win the well-fought day. That having all things done, And all your conflicts past, Ye may o’ercome, through Christ alone, And stand complete at last.”  We are never stronger than when we are on our knees in prayer, holding on by faith, and determined to receive God’s blessing no matter the cost!

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Life Lessons Devotional Series, Monday May 1, 2023

Scripture: ¹⁴ Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. ¹⁵ These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! ¹⁶ No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

¹⁷ “‘In the last days, God says,
    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your young men will see visions,
    your old men will dream dreams.
¹⁸ Even on my servants, both men and women,
    I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
    and they will prophesy.
¹⁹ I will show wonders in the heavens above
    and signs on the earth below,
    blood and fire and billows of smoke.
²⁰ The sun will be turned to darkness
    and the moon to blood
    before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
²¹ And everyone who calls
    on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

– The Last days was initiated approximately 2000 years ago following the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Subsequently the Lord poured out His Holy Spirit in fulfillment of the prophetic message concerning the last days.  God’s Word has been fulfilled, is being fulfilled, and will be fulfilled in accordance with all that has been recorded.

– We who are His church are the beneficiaries of the promised outpouring of God’s Spirit!  God’s Spirit has been poured out, is being poured out, and will be poured out on all people in accordance with the Word of the Lord. “All people” as recorded here is representative of the inclusion of not only the Jews but the gentiles from every tribe, nation and language on the earth.  All people everywhere can come to a full and complete knowledge of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord!  None are excluded!  Whosever will may come! Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved!  Amen!

– With the outpouring of the Spirit is given the promise of prophetic utterance coming from young and old, both men and women, for all are one in Christ Jesus!  So too comes the foreboding promise of global cataclysmic events.  Although 2000 years have come and gone, we are only now beginning to see the consummation of what the prophet Joel spoke of taking shape as the powers of darkness rally together for the final battle.  Though evil abounds everywhere, truth and light will always overcome through the power of the Spirit!   

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Life Lessons Devotional Series, Friday April 28, 2023

Scripture: 17 Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”

Life Lesson: The prophetic utterance is not man made or of mankind’s initiative, it is the divinely led, God inspired message of the Lord to restrain evil, edify the Church and to bring glory to God.

– Elijah stood before the king of Israel and announced the judgement of God without reservation or hesitation.

– The message was delivered by Elijah, however make no mistake, the message itself was from the Lord! Elijah said that the message he spoke was as certain as the fact that God lives! Elijah was not hoping that the message would come true, he knew with certainty that it would. 

– This is the difference between messages that come for the human heart and messages that come from the Lord; every word from the Lord will prove to be true!  The prophetic word is not a matter of if but when it will happen. 

– Some today believe that such spiritual gifts are not longer at work in the people of God, however the Bible clearly teaches the continuation of spiritual gifts, 1 Cor. 12: ⁷ Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. ⁸ To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, ⁹ to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, ¹⁰ to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹ All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.”  The Bible tells us, Rom. 11: ²⁹ for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.” 

– Church, we must be as bold and unapologetic as the prophet Elijah was in declaring the message of the Lord today!  This world is filled with wickedness, violence and depravity and is in desperate need of the prophetic word of God!  It must be boldly declared within the church to turn the hearts of God’s people back to faith!  It must be shouted in the streets to warn all who have ears to hear to flee the coming judgment! 

– God’s Word will never fail and we who believe must not fail in our call to declare it!  But let me say it again, we must not speak from our own convictions but from the leading of the Holy Spirit.  Ask God to put His Word in your heart and in your mouth as you study God’s Word and to give you boldness in declaring it, Acts 4:29!

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Life Lessons Devotional Series, Thursday April 27, 2023

Scripture: Phil. 1: ²¹ For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. ²² If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! ²³ I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; ²⁴ but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. ²⁵ Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, ²⁶ so that through my being with you again your boasting in Christ Jesus will abound on account of me.

Life Lesson: There exists within the heart of the child of God a yearning and longing to be in the presence of our Lord and that desire that is in the process of being fulfilled as we live out our lives here by faith in Christ will ultimately be fulfilled when at last His face we shall see in that day when we leave this world.

– In this passage the apostle Paul speaks out passionately about his longing to go on from this life into the very presence of the Lord. He qualifies his confession saying, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain”. 

– For many today they might instead say, “For to me, to live is to gain and to die is to go on to be with Christ”.  Paul expresses without reservation that his sole purpose, and his greatest achievement in this life is to serve and to know Christ!  Christ is the very epicentre of his being!  His life is literally defined by his walk with Christ and Christ is his greatest joy!

– Is it any wonder then that he also says “to die is gain”?  While for many of us the thought of dying stirs up anxious feelings, for Paul the fact of dying evoked even a greater hope than living!  Paul’s walk of faith was so intimate and fulfilling to him that he knew without question that on the day he might leave his body behind he would be immediately ushered into the presence of the Lord! In 2 Timothy Paul also wrote 1:12 I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.”  This testimony conveys complete confidence in the faithfulness of God!

– Paul also wrote of his longing for the day that he would inherit his new body in 2 Cor. 5: ⁶ Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. ⁷ For we live by faith, not by sight. ⁸ We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”  Paul says he is confident that to be away from the body is to be at home with the Lord!  Therefore, for the believer, death has truly lost its sting because of the reality that is awaiting us!  1Cor. 15: ⁵⁴ When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”  ⁵⁵ “Where, O death, is your victory?
    Where, O death, is your sting?”

⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Amen!