Isn’t it amazing what repentance can bring?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,
(Acts 3:19 (NIV))

Do you remember when you first repented of your sins and accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior?

How did you feel?

It is not uncommon for people to express this feeling as a cleansing sensation.

I like to think of it in the following manner. Before accepting Jesus you are burdened with the weight of the world. You are struggling with the toils of life and long for a glimpse of hope. You are filthy and in need of cleansing. Now, with that in mind, imagine yourself working in the yard on the hottest day of the year. You take a look at the swimming pool and without hesitation, you decide to dive in. Instantly you are refreshed. You come up out of the water cleansed. The dirt is gone. The weight of your toils have been washed away. You feel invigorated. You feel empowered. You feel renewed.

Repentance is similar in nature to this analogy with the swimming pool. No matter what you have done, no matter how filthy you may be, you can turn to the source of the cleansing. You can be refreshed. Better yet, you can choose to walk with Jesus and experience the refreshing on a daily basis. If you find yourself straying and in need of refreshment, simply turn back to Jesus!

Isn’t it amazing what repentance can bring?

Copyright 1998 – 2019 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Will you receive your reward?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

“He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.”
(Matthew 10:40-42 (NIV))

Have you ever thought about this passage and how it can impact your life and the lives of those around you?

Carefully consider that Jesus is telling us that if we go out in His name, it is as if He were the one who was going out spreading the Word. If we are received and the message that we bring is received, then Jesus is received. If we are rejected because of the message, then Jesus will be rejected. I know that all of us have heard this in different forms during our lives, but, no matter how you word it, we are to be Jesus to the world!

What an awesome responsibility! We are representatives of the Son of God! We have the authority to preach and to teach in the name of Jesus Christ. We also have the responsibility to our fellow man to tell them of the grace and mercy that God freely gives to any who would simply call upon the name of Jesus. If we are faithful in our task, then God, through the grace and mercy given through Jesus, will call us prophets, for a prophet speaks the will of God. It is God’s will that no one should perish. He will call us righteous, for through the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus, we are made spotless and righteous in His eyes.

The next time that you get an opportunity to share Jesus with someone, remember that we have a responsibility that should not be taken lightly. What if the person who shared Jesus with you had shirked their responsibility? Do not shirk yours.

Will you receive your reward?

Copyright 1998 – 2019 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Do you long for the day of completion?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
(Philippians 1:3-6 (NIV))

Isn’t it wonderful how we can come to Jesus just as we are and He accepts us in all of our rags? What is even more wonderful is that once we come to Jesus, He does not leave us in our rags. He begins to work within us and turn us into what God had intended for us to be all along.

We are not completed works. We are works in progress. We are not the same as we were the day we accepted Jesus as our Savior, and we are not the same today as we will be when we stand before the throne. We are constantly being changed into the image of Christ.

In this world, we will not be able to be completed due to the nature of sin. But when we stand before God, through the redemptive and cleansing power of Jesus’ blood, we will be completed.

God does not do anything only half way. He gave us a way to salvation through Jesus Christ, and He also gave us a way to be completed in His image.

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
(Genesis 1:27)

God created us in His image from the beginning. It was the introduction of sin into the world that corrupted that image. Through Jesus Christ, we again have the potential to be created in his own image.

When you look into the mirror, whose image do you see? Do you long for the day of completion?

Copyright 1998 – 2018 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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I am reborn through the power of His birth!

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, `You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
(John 3:5-8 (NIV))

During this time of year when we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we have to stop and consider the things that Jesus spoke of in this passage and the true meaning of what He spoke of.

If you stop to think about the birth of Jesus, it is not the typical birth.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
(John 1:1-2 (NIV))

Jesus existed before His physical birth. He has existed since the beginning and will exist for all eternity. Why did He go through the physical birth when He already existed? Why did He come to take a physical, human form? Why did He give up the heavenly to put on the frailty of humanity? Why did He do any of the things that He did?

Love!

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”
(John 3:16-21 (NIV))

I find it amazing and I am deeply humbled by the fact that Jesus gave up everything so that He could offer us redemptive grace and salvation. He is eternal. We are dust. Yet, He loves us enough to have come to this world and live as one of us. He loves us enough to have suffered and died for the cleansing of all of our sins. He loves us enough to intercede for us with the Father.

I realize that what we know as Christmas is a joyous time for the reason we celebrate is joyous. I also find it to be a time of self reflection. Do I live up to the expectations of Jesus? Do I have the faith to do the things that He has done? I know that I fail daily. I also know that I can repent and rest assured that I am still loved and forgiven. I know this because of the promises that were fulfilled when Jesus was born into the physical world!

Copyright 1998 – 2015 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Have you answered the call to follow Jesus?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
(Matthew 9:9 (NIV))

What made Matthew leave behind his very lucrative job as a tax collector and follow Jesus?

Think about that question. Tax collectors had a certain amount that they had to collect for Rome. Anything that they collected above that, they could keep. It is thought that many people got very wealthy by being a tax collector for Rome. With this in mind, Matthew walked away from certain earthly wealth. He saw something of far greater value in what Jesus had to offer. He saw that he, too, could be a part of God’s plans and a part of God’s kingdom. Jesus, in telling Matthew to follow Him, was telling Matthew that God valued him, even when society looked upon him as an outcast. Tax collectors, even though they got very wealthy, were social outcasts. They were Jews in a country that was occupied by the Roman army. The Romans looked upon the Jews as second class citizens and the Jews looked upon the tax collectors as traitors to the nation of Israel. They couldn’t win.

Then Jesus came!

Matthew saw an opportunity to place his past behind him. He saw a voice calling to him in spite of what he had done. Matthew was being asked to forget his past and become someone new. Isn’t that exactly what Jesus offers each of us today? We are no different than Matthew. We have all done things in our lives that have placed us in situations where we feel like we do not belong. Through Jesus, we are offered redemption. We are offered cleansing. We are offered forgiveness. All that we have to do is what Matthew did. We have to get up and follow Jesus.

Jesus is telling each of us to follow Him. Will you do as Matthew and follow Him?

Copyright 1998 – 2015 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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