| Latest Thoughts of the Day |
| Romans 1:27 |
| 9/18/2025 |
In the same way, the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were enflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
Choosing a homosexual lifestyle cuts a person off from normal relationships designed by God for our good. It puts entirely out of balance the place of sexuality in our view of the world. It involves rejecting the protection God gives to those who fear Him. It involves physical sicknesses that hinder all activities and endanger life itself. These are unavoidable consequences of the choices people make, and they work themselves out in inward personal destruction as a penalty for the choices. It is apart from the Eternal judgment we all must face. Thank You, Lord, that you offer forgiveness and restoration to those who turn in repentance and faith to Jesus.
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| Acts 2:4 |
| 9/17/2025 |
All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Jesus had told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until the gift of the Holy Spirit was given. They were waiting for the day of Pentecost, when a particularly large contingent from most every nation in the known world would gather for celebration. At such a time the church is launched as a force from God, reaching out across political and cultural boundaries to include and transform people of every land. Chaos and confusion is what we would have observed, and we may have been tempted to think people drunk or deranged, but God was doing a monumental work, purposed from before the foundation of the world and focusing upon Jesus Christ, the Son of God, risen from the dead. The world’s attention is focused on Jesus.
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| John 1:27 |
| 9/16/2025 |
He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.
John the Baptist is being cross-examined concerning the goal and purpose of his ministry, and he makes it very clear that the goal and purpose have to do with Jesus. John views Jesus as very much above him in every way. He sees his own ministry as wholly preparatory for Jesus’ ministry. John’s charge is to point to Christ; Christ’s is to rule over all. Before John’s death he will have questions and doubts concerning Christ, because John will remain to the end an Old Testament prophet, looking ahead, but not perceiving the depth of what he proclaims. Yet John is greater than all the prophets, for he alone beheld the promised Messiah with his own eyes. John bridges the gap and turns the eyes of all to Jesus.
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| :Luke 1:27 |
| 9/15/2025 |
...to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant o David. The virgin's name was Mary.
The focus of the narrative has been in Jerusalem at the temple, but it switches now a hundred miles north to Galilee. Here we find an utterly insignificant young girl going about the business of life, with personal relationships and personal plans. We are told that God Himself has directed His angel, Gabriel, to deliver a life-changing, world-changing message to this “nobody” who loved God and treasured His word in her life. We feel her amazement and wonder about her questions and anticipate the implications of the interchange between angel and human in the purpose of God to bring into this world His Son. Something wonderful is coming to pass before our eyes. We stand in awe, prepared to worship. We listen for details about Jesus.
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| Mark 1:27 |
| 9/14/2025 |
The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, "What is this? A new teaching--and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him!
Social media was ablaze, even without cell phones. Not just word pictures of events, but evaluation and discussion. They discussed differences with what they had been taught and they noted the response of the evil spirits that had been confronted. What had happened and what were the implications were all mixed up in the gossip, making it all work very much like what we do with our phones. Jesus had become a sensation. And God used all of this to launch His gospel message. The movement has lasted 2000 years and spanned the globe, not because of communication but because of the person of Jesus Himself. God has used the communication to call His own to Jesus.
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| Matthew 2:2 |
| 9/13/2025 |
...and asked,"Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?"
The wise men who have arrived from the East are asking the wrong man this question. Herod will note the information he gets from them and afterwards do everything he can to kill this baby they are asking about. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” It seemed best to ask the king; it was not really best; but, in the end, it worked to accomplish the fulfilling of prophecy and the glory of God. What comfort there is in the fact that all this kind of thing is under the control of God. Help us today, Lord, to make choices and decisions that promote the purposes of Your great kingdom and the honor of Your Son. We want to live for Jesus.
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| Malachi 2:13 |
| 9/12/2025 |
Another thing you do: You flood the Lord's altar with tears. You weep and wail because He no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from you hands.
God is speaking to the priests, who sense that God is not pleased with their sacrifices, and He rebukes them for their play-acting grief. So sad they are not appreciated! So faithful, and God so unwilling to acknowledge their holiness! God is the bad guy. They steadfastly appeal! Baloney! The reason they do not sense God’s approval is the rotten way they are treating their wives. They think they can live disgraceful personal lives and still get God’s approval because their offerings are so nice. God does not play games with them or with us. We all need to walk humbly with God and treat our loved ones with respect. We need Your help, Lord Jesus!
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| Zechariah 2:7 |
| 9/11/2025 |
"Come, O Zion! Escape, you who live in the dauthter of Babylon!"
ZECHARIAH 2:7
“Come, O Zion! Escape, you who live in the daughter of Babylon!”
Babylon has been overtaken by Persia, but many Jews are glad to remain where they were settled, because life has been fairly good. We know that God will uses those Jewish ghettos as launching pads for His kingdom when the Apostle Paul will visit them in about 6oo years. But Zechariah is looking beyond to the glory of God’s kingdom manifest and worked out through the ministry of God’s great Deliverer. Those who have returned to Jerusalem for the difficult task of rebuilding are laying the foundation for a glorious work. Zechariah sees Christ to an amazing degree, and he calls his fellow Jews to shake off their Babylonian residue and look to the future. More than any Old Testament prophet except Isaiah, Zechariah sees the glory of the coming kingdom and God’s deliverance in Jesus.
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