Do you long for the sacred times with the Lord?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ©

And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years,
(Genesis 1:14 (NIV))

How do you plan and track the events in your life?

If you are like everyone else in the modern world, you plan things on a calendar and even perhaps on a digital calendar down to the year, month, day, hour and minute. You look at the calendar and know how far away a certain event will be. You trust that calendar and your clocks to tell you when something is to happen. For those who have ever owned, or knew someone who owned a very intricate grandfather clock, you know the precision movement of the mechanical pieces that track the time. Some even will track years, months and days. I believe that this passage from Genesis tells us that God has created such a calendar in the heavens with a more precise movement and accuracy than anything that humanity has imagined.

The sad thing is that we try to impose our calendar, along with our will, on God!

We try to force God and His majestic splendor into a box that we define so that we can try to understand Him. Ironically, we even do this when we look to the Lord for the things that He has promised are yet to happen. We read His Word and see what He has laid out according to His Will and then we try to figure out everything according to our understanding and our calendar. Just as you and I cannot truly understand the inner mechanical workings of a fine Swiss watch, we cannot fully understand the more intricate workings of God’s calendar. Even the closest man-made calendar is not perfectly aligned with God’s calendar. There is disagreement as to the accuracy of the current Hebrew calendar, and that was man’s attempt at following what was given to us by God!

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
     neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
     so are my ways higher than your ways
     and my thoughts than your thoughts.
(Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV))

It is my prayer that we, as the Body of Christ, learn to submit our desires to God’s Will and to His calendar.

I realize that we long to see the Lord, but we cannot see God’s calendar from His perspective. He has set everything in motion and we are simply called to be obedient until He comes. We must stand firm in our faith and keep our eyes focused on Jesus. One day soon we will see God’s calendar from a different perspective. The day will come that He takes us to be with Him. That is a sacred time that I am sure He has marked in His calendar that He spoke of in Genesis, the lights in the vault of the sky.

Do you long for the sacred times with the Lord?

Copyright 1998 – 2022 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
https://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Are we thoroughly equipped to be God’s servants?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ©

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
(2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NIV))

Most believers are familiar with this passage, but most read it as I have presented it here. We have a tendency to take it as a stand-alone passage and forget the context that it was originally written. It is true that as a stand-alone passage, it does speak truth, for anything from God’s Word is God-breathed and useful in all righteousness, but there is more to this passage than this. These words about all scripture close 2 Timothy 3 after it is opened with these words about the last days.

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
(2 Timothy 3:1-5 (NIV))

We, as the Body of Christ, have taken these two passages and have made them unrelated. We look at the warning about the last days but fail to realize that the closing words from 2 Timothy 3 are instructions for us when we see the things of the last days unfolding right before our eyes. The words written by Paul to Timothy are instructions to continue in the faith. We are to stand firm in the face of adversity. We are to stand firm when we see people are becoming lovers of themselves. We are to stand firm in our faith when we see the world turning into lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. We are to stand firm by firmly rooting ourselves in the scriptures, and not just our favorite passages.

In order to recognize the truth, we must be firmly rooted in God’s truth. There are gems of godly wisdom and truth in every passage. Some truths are only recognizable when you understand the complete truth, for God’s Word is not just a collection of individual, unrelated nuggets. God’s Word is life!

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
(Genesis 1:1 (NIV))

From the first words in Genesis 1 to the last words in Revelation 22, there is an unfolding of God’s truth and in order to understand it, we must read and study it all.

He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.
(Revelation 22:20-21 (NIV))

It is said that all of scripture after the fall from grace details God’s plan to bring salvation and to restore His creation. How well do you know the story? How well do you know what the outcomes are for those involved in this story?

Are we thoroughly equipped to be God’s servants?

Copyright 1998 – 2020 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Do you believe the Lord?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
(Genesis 15:6 (NIV))

What is your definition of righteousness?

If you are like me, it is probably not an easy thing to define at the personal level. We see ourselves and all of our flaws and we come to the conclusion that we can’t truly call ourselves righteous. We know all of our faults and imperfections. We probably even know some that are only faults and imperfections in our own minds. We see people who seem to have it all together and we compare ourselves and all of our known issues with a false perception of these individuals.

Did this passage in Genesis say that Abram was better than his neighbors? Did it say that he was wealthier or better looking than his neighbors?

No!

It simply says that he believed the Lord!

Do you believe the Lord?

That question may be as difficult to answer as my previous request to define righteousness. First of all, there is a difference between believing “in” the Lord and believing the Lord. Let me explain with an example. I believe in gravity. The concept makes sense, but do you believe gravity? Have you ever put gravity to the test? Have you ever said to gravity, I believe in you, but can I believe that you will keep me from floating away? If we believe in something, we acknowledge its existence. If we believe something, then we hold fast to the truth that it represents. Using the gravity example, we can say that we believe in it, but we have to believe the principle that if we step off of a cliff, we will fall to our death.

Believing in the Lord does not stop your from doing your own thing. Believing the Lord means that you trust Him and you know that His guidance is perfect. Believing the Lord is a major step to obeying the Lord. Being obedient to the Lord is a very good definition of righteousness. Abram, in his belief, was obedient.

Do you believe the Lord?

Copyright 1998 – 2019 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Is God perfecting you?

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))

We should rejoice in the fact that none of us are completed in God’s sight. What God started in Genesis was a fore-taste of what He had planned.

Salvation through Jesus Christ, His Son, is a wonderful gift that none of us deserve. God did not plan on stopping with only saving us. He wants to perfect us in His sight. Every day that we live in this world is another day that we come closer to God’s image for us. We will not see perfection in this life, though, since this world has been turned over to the powers of the air. God is perfecting us and will complete this task, one by one, when we stand before Him.

We as believers, have a strong and mighty God who is in control, and who is working His ultimate plan. We must pray for each other and for those who are not yet in The Kingdom.

Let God work in you today to perfect you and to pray for others that He is perfecting.

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

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
(1 John 5:11-12 (NIV))

Do you have eternal life?

Everyone longs for eternal life for everyone fears death to some extent. All throughout history, man has spent countless efforts looking for the proverbial fountain of youth. This fountain of youth was not so much an effort to stay young, but rather it was an effort to avoid death. Death has always been the uncertain aspect of our existence that even to those who profess a strong faith in God, has been a step that is difficult to make. We all must go through that step, but we do not have the ability to speak to anyone who has already done it. We are creatures of comfort. We seek the comfort of reassuring words when we face the unknown. We can face just about anything as long as we know someone who can tell us what it will be like.

It is time to digress. Lets go back to Genesis.

The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”
(Genesis 2:15-17 (NIV))

God desired for us to have eternal life. He created us to have eternal life. It was through our sin that we are doomed to face death. God did not give up on us, even though we tend to give up on Him. He sent His Son, Jesus, to die for us. He bore all of our sins and suffered the ultimate death so that we would not have to. It is true that we will still face a physical death, but we will not face eternal separation from God. All we have to do is accept the grace and mercy freely given to us through the atoning blood of Jesus.

I am sure that everyone knows of the marketing slogan for the milk industry. Perhaps we should commandeer that slogan and modify it.

Got Jesus?

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