Emeralds, sapphires, rubies, diamonds, and moonstones – all of these are considered precious by man’s standards. Many people have striven to acquire these gems and have given just about anything to find and collect them. Some have even given their lives in pursuit of these precious stones.
To God, we are like gemstones. In 1 Peter 2:4-5, Christians are described as “precious” and “lively stones.” We are valuable to God, and He paid the ultimate price in order to save us – His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ (John 3:16).
In Matthew 16:26, Jesus states the value of our souls (worth…
Filed under: Devotional, Michael Carter on July 31st, 2008 | No Comments »
“And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” Luke 2:51, My own definition of “increased” is to do or be more today than yesterday, to excel, to improve in all aspects of life, especially in our christian life. We too need to increase in knowledge by daily bible study, attending bible classes, attending gospel meeting, kids day, VBS, etc. but notice how God was put first in this verse before man, we all must try to please God and not man and by always putting God first in our lives.
Filed under: Danny Sprouse, Devotional on July 30th, 2008 | No Comments »
This Sunday evening as Michael and I were discussing the recent success of the website in terms of numbers of visitors, he reminded me of Titus 2:10 which says to adorn the doctrine of God. It had not occurred to me before that this can be applied to our “presence” on the Internet. The word adorn is taken from the same word where we get our English word of “cosmetics” and it means to put in order. As I contemplate the implications of this, I have no doubt that the using access we have to excellent technology to make the…
Filed under: Butch Adams, Devotional on July 29th, 2008 | No Comments »
In the previous articles, we have noticed that in the surrounding psalms, the Lord was mindful of the poor and righteous. He heard his cries and demonstrated His loving care and concern. Now in Psalm 8, David, the sweet singer of Israel, stands in awe and wonder at the attention that God pays to us as humans. As he looks up and stares out at the night sky, he marvels in amazement of the handiwork of God. As he considers the vastness and the details of the universe above him, he questions how such a Being as God could…
Filed under: Devotional, Michael Carter on July 28th, 2008 | 1 Comment »
In this series, we are looking at what Psalm 8 says about man. But before looking more closely at it, I think it is helpful to take a broad view of the picture given to us of the first fifteen psalms. William Holman Holt’s famous 1859 painting, which is sometimes used to illustrate Revelation 3:20, also serves as an appropriate picture of the opening section of the Book of Psalms.
We have seen from the previous article in this series that Psalm 8 can be seen as a “hinge” (Psalm 9-10 are also closely related, so they can…
Filed under: Devotional, Michael Carter on July 27th, 2008 | No Comments »
