The Reading Plan Daily Devotions

“But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.” ( Malachi 4:2 )   For those of us who don’t live on a farm, this picture is hard to imagine. But if you grew up with cattle, this picture used by God brings an immediate, delightful smile to your face.   A new calf, enclosed for its safety in the barn, is rambunctious and eager to be at play. When released from the barn, the calf runs out into the pasture with glorious abandonment and joy. He is free, and every fiber of his bovine body illustrates this liberty.   FREE AT LAST   We are confined in this life to a dying body in the midst of a dying world. Sin has enslaved us, and it affects us all. But there’s coming a day for those who have put their trust in Jesus Christ when this world will be liberated from its corruption.   Jesus spoke of this in Revelation 21 . A new heaven and earth is before us. All of those who have trusted

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. ( Malachi 3:10 )   From the beginning of the Bible to the end there is a non-negotiable practice that is commanded and illustrated throughout. We are to bring the first fruits of all we receive as an offering to God. This amount is the “tithe” which is a word that simply means 10% of all we receive. Very simple. Very clear. Very, very important.   THE PRACTICE   This is so simple that even a child can give. With everything that you receive, you are to take the amount, move the decibel over to indicate 10%, and give it first to His church (His “storehouse”). Even Jesus speaks of the tithe as an understood principle in our lives. Jesus, in Matthew 23:23 , spoke of this giving as a non-negotiable practice in our lives and went on to describe the motive that s

“And now this commandment is for you, O priests. If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to give honor to My name,” says the Lord of hosts, “then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings; and indeed, I have cursed them already, because you are not taking it to heart. ( Malachi 2:1-2 )   God is the creator of every blessing we have ever known. The beauty of a sunrise, the glory of a new child are both from God. Everything your eye can see that is a blessing to you is from the One who loves you and made you.   But there is another side to God. God can send great judgment when needed. God’s judgment can be compared to God’s use of pain in the human body. When pain comes, it alerts us to something that needs to be adjusted … a change to be made.   God has a plan for our lives and that plan is “good, acceptable, and perfect” ( Romans 12:2 ). When we cooperate in faith with God, our lives find order and beauty and life as it was designed to be. But, if

“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. Then if I am a father, where is My honor? and if I am a master, where is My respect?” says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name. ( Malachi 1:6 )   It’s a common statement and very understandable. “You’re not treating me right,” a wife might say to her husband or vice versa. What they mean is, “I’m your mate and you made a vow to me that you’re not fulfilling.”   As is true in a marriage or a family or a relationship, it is also true (and even more so) in our relationship to God.   HIS PLACE   God created us. He made us and then He sent His Son to buy us back from sin and Satan when we wandered from Him. Twice over we belong to Him. Every breath we have is by His grace. Every “good and perfect gift” comes from Him. All we are and have is purely because of Him.   Many of us have surrendered our lives to His leadership and control and embraced Him by faith as our Savior and Master. The question must be asked, “What doe

“Did not Solomon king of Israel sin regarding these things? Yet among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel; nevertheless, the foreign women caused even him to sin.” ( Nehemiah 13:26 )   Most people think they’re immune. That it won’t affect them. Most believe that they can compromise with sin and not be affected.   But no one is above the subtle effects of sin.   A CLASSIC EXAMPLE   Nehemiah, in Chapter 13, is reprimanding the Israelite people because they have made multiple compromises. One of which was marrying women who worshipped false gods. God knew that this would pull them away from the most important place, which is worshiping the one true God alone.   As an illustration, he cites Solomon, the wisest man on the earth in his day. And yet, Solomon disobeyed God in one thing as he married foreign women who turned his heart away.   This story is for us. If we begin to make compromises with the world and run

Then I had the leaders of Judah come up on top of the wall, and I appointed two great choirs ( Neh 12:31 )   I have noticed something fascinating and helpful lately. We have been preaching through the life of David and last week we came to his final act as King in 1 Chronicles 28-29 .    At this moment, David called all the people together. He cast vision for the building of the temple (which his son, Solomon was to build), and then he, then the leaders, then the people gave a great offering. It was a huge, corporate vision-casting and course-directing moment.   Nehemiah does the same, recorded in Nehemiah 8-12. As they finish rebuilding the temple and restoring the wall, Nehemiah appoints choirs who stand on top of the wall on either side, and there is a great celebration.    ... on that day they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced because God had given them great joy...so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard from afar. ( Neh 12:43 ).    In addition to this, Nehemiah led the people t

And the people blessed all the men who volunteered to live in Jerusalem. ( Nehemiah 11:2 )   There are some among us who are called to serve the Lord and His purposes full-time. This is not a mere duty, but a calling. And, these should be honored among us.   THE MEN OF JERUSALEM   In Nehemiah’s day, the great task was the rebuilding of the wall around the Holy City. But although the walls were built, the city inside was not. But the city needed men to protect her from her enemies.   A tenth of the men, (a tithe), was chosen for this task. They were to move from their houses and lands and occupy a place on the wall to protect it.   The people blessed these men. They honored them for their faithful service to this holy task.   And, we should do so today.   Lord, thank You for the men and women who serve You among us. All of us are compelled to serve You, but thanks for the ones who are called out to perform special service to shepherd and protect the family of God. Help us to bless and h

Nehemiah 10 and that they might bring the first fruits of our ground and the first fruits of all the fruit of every tree to the house of the Lord annually, 36 and bring to the house of our God the firstborn of our sons and of our cattle, and the firstborn of our herds and our flocks as it is written in the law, for the priests who are ministering in the house of our God. 37 We will also bring the first of our dough, our contributions, the fruit of every tree, the new wine and the oil to the priests at the chambers of the house of our God, and the tithe of our ground to the Levites, for the Levites are they who receive the tithes in all the rural towns. 38 The priest, the son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive tithes, and the Levites shall bring up the tenth of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers of the storehouse.   When nationwide revival came to the people of Israel, they realized that one of the things they had failed to do was to bring God’

“But as soon as they had rest, they did evil again before You. Therefore You abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, so that they ruled over them. When they cried again to You, You heard from heaven, and many times You rescued them according to Your compassion. ( Nehemiah 9:28 )   “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it; prone to leave the God I love.” The hymn writer captured in a sentence what is universally true of man. Our humanity is weak, the devil is strong, and the world pulls us relentlessly away from God. Even those who have come into a relationship with Christ still wander at times.   God made us, so He knows this truth. And, He has made an incredible provision. It’s called “grace.” Grace is the unmerited favor of God. It is His goodness extended to us in spite of our rebellion. This compassion makes possible a cycle that occurs over and over again with people and nations. It’s a cycle that we are in right now and if we don’t properly understand it we may not cooperate with Go

 Nehemiah is an amazing account of one of the great revivals in human history. The Jews had rebelled against God and been overcome by the Babylonians and been in captivity for many, many years.   True to form, God still had His hand on His people, and miraculously moved Cryus, the king, to return the people to their land, and also had allowed (later) Nehemiah to return and rebuild the walls, which was miraculously accomplished in 52 days.   Now the people came to the city to meet together as a nation. What do they do? They made a small, wooden platform and called the godliest one they knew, Ezra, along with other priests, to simply read the word of God and translate it to "give the sense so that they understood the reading" ( Nehemiah 8:8 ). This is called PREACHING. (Notice it was not Nehemiah, the great administrative leader, who led this moment. It was Ezra the spiritual scribe. Both played their part. Both were essential to the beginning of nationwide revival.)   THE POWE

We live in a world filled with distractions. There is a constant pull from what is vital and essential to that which is secondary and even evil. The devil doesn’t have to destroy you in order to keep you from doing God’s work; he just has to distract you. It is one of his chief schemes.   Nehemiah, Chapter 6 is given to all of us, and particularly leaders, to teach us how to deal with this debilitating scheme. Notice how the temptation develops and how Nehemiah deals with it at every turn.   DISTRACTION #1 :  We receive a simple invitation to leave God’s work.     It sounds innocuous, but there is behind it a deadly intent. This could be an invitation to be involved in a conversation, entertainment, a game, a nice honor that seems a worthy thing to stop and engage in. It does not matter to your enemy. His one intent is to turn your hand away from God’s work.   Now when it was reported to Sanballat, Tobiah, to Geshem the Arab and to the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall, a

So we built the wall and the whole wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work. ( Nehemiah 4:6 )   Every leader experienced waves of discouragement and confusion during the COVID19 pandemic in 2020. Leaders lead. Leaders want to move the ball forward and get things done. Spiritual leaders want to see the kingdom advance. No true man or woman of God wants to just survive. To get by. To merely tread water. To see the work of God slowed or even stopped. It’s frustrating.   How do we lead in such moments? How do we advance the work of God when it seems that everything is working against us?   A NATIONAL SHUT DOWN   … happened in Nehemiah’s day. Most of the people in the nation of Israel had been taken into captivity in Babylon. There was just a small remnant left to tend the fields in Israel (surely not enough to get anything done.) Over time, the primary city, Jerusalem, had fallen into ruins. The wall was destroyed around the city and the gates had been

It is a tragic thing to watch a nation digress. The youngest of those who live in our nation today cannot possibly remember anything different. But many of us can. We remember a nation, not long ago where … Every day in public school we began with prayer, asking for God's help and protection on our day. Television had no profanity (none), no sexual perversion, no nakedness, and what was promoted was wholesome family entertainment. Political leaders disagreed, but they disagreed agreeably. There was a level of civility that is now a distant memory. The church had great respect from all levels of society and was making rapid advances. The things of God were not scoffed at, ridiculed, or mocked. Sunday and Wednesday nights were universally reserved for church activities. Even non-believers understand the helpful role of spiritual life in the nation and in their communities. The immoralities that are common and defended today were not even mentioned. The needs of others were seen as mo

It is one of the wonders of the world. One of the most unexplainable things in human history. In fact, if you divorce God from the story, it is impossible to explain.   God takes simple men and women and uses them to change history.   Look at a young girl named Esther and her uncle and guardian, Mordecai. Esther was a slave who became the queen of the largest government in the known world.   And we read of Mordecai, who through a sovereign plan of God was "second only to King Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews and in favor with his many kinsmen, one who sought the good of his people and the one who spoke for the welfare of his whole nation" ( Esther 10:3 )   FOOLISH THINGS   The Apostle Paul, who was himself such an anomaly, would later remind us under the inspiration of the Spirit why God operates this way.   "For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things

Pride is the root of all sin. It is the sin that causes us to exalt ourselves over others and over God Himself and it is the antithesis of unselfish love. God repeatedly reminds us that He resists the proud.  We see this pride in full color in the life of Haman in the book of Esther and the predictable outcomes of an arrogant life.   1. PRIDE ALWAYS LEADS YOU TO BRAG   Pride gets no joy unless one is recognized by others. Pride makes you always want others to know all of your accomplishments.   Then Haman recounted to them the glory of his riches, and the number of his sons, and every instance where the king had magnified him and how he had promoted him above the princes and servants of the king. Haman also said, “Even Esther the queen let no one but me come with the king to the banquet which she had prepared, and tomorrow also I am invited by her with the king. ( Esther 5:11-12 ) 2. PRIDE IS NEVER SATISFIED A proud man always wants more recognition for he always seeks to be at the cen