Dean Allen's Daily Devotional

-June 1, 2022-

Good morning, happy Wednesday,

“Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name. Let your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, just as we hope in You.

(Psalm 33:20-22).

Psalm 33 is an anonymous psalm. The title is: “The Sovereignty of the Lord in Creation and History.” God does what He pleases and no one can question or doubt Him. Our part is to wait for for His help, rejoice in His name, put our hope fully in Him. God has never failed us nor can He ever fail us. He is perfect in His love, goodness, power, and all His attributes.

I. Our soul waits for the Lord – God is our help and our shield. In life we need God’s help for everything we do; Man’s help is futile. God’s help is available to us 24-7. He is but a prayer away. Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” He is also our shield. In ancient battles the shield was the soldier’s greatest asset along with his sword. The shield is used to protect and sword is wielded to attack.

II. Our heart rejoices in His name – We trust in His holy name. A person’s name is what they stand for, their character. We can trust in Him because He has a perfect track record. The hymn modern writer Stephen R. Adams wrote, “Care and comfort and healing and grace — It’s all in the name of Jesus, welcome and pardon, a hiding place— It’s all in the name of Jesus; Warmth and sunshine and friendship true, fulfillment and blessing untold; Hope for tomorrow and help for today— It’s all in the name of Jesus.” There is such tremendous love and power in the name of Jesus!

III. By God’s mercy upon us we have hope in Him for tomorrow – The future in this world is so uncertain. One day, things look rosy, the next the clouds are dark, and things appear very bleak and troubling. Despite all of life’s changes, God never changes. Malachi 3:6 says, “For I am the Lord, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.” We also read in Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” With God on our side, He will turn the tide!

Have a blessed day waiting for the Lord, trusting in His name, and putting our hope in Him. He is our help and shield. Stay safe and healthy.

In God’s care,

Dean

-May 31, 2022-

Good morning, happy Tuesday,

“But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.”

(Deuteronomy 30:14).

The God of the universe has made His Word available to mankind, especially to us who are His children. In this portion of Scripture, Moses relates this in Deuteronomy 30:11-14. God’s truth is accessible to us in order that we may obey it. He says, “For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off.” We as believers today are so blessed to have the Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments in one volume we can carry with us. God wants us to know His Word, not just to gain knowledge, but to put it into practice in our lives. The three questions we should always ask ourselves: What does it say? What does it mean, and what does it mean to me?

Moses states that we that it is not in heaven, where we need someone to bring it down to us, nor is beyond the sea, that we need someone to go beyond the sea to bring it to us either. Paul quotes from this passage in Romans 10:5-8. The best place for the Word of God is not a table or bookshelf, but in our hearts. In Psalm 119:11 the psalmist wrote, “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”

We all have questions we would like to ask the Lord when we get to heaven. There will plenty of time for that. We can be confident that God has revealed to us what He wants us to know for our lives now and for eternity. Moses told the people of Israel, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:29). God knows our capacity and does not overload us with more than we can handle and digest. While there are many Scriptures that are hard to understand, but God has taught us so much by the Holy Spirit. The more we learn, the more accountable we are to the Lord.

May the Lord help us to have a hunger and thirst for His Word. We need to ask good questions, obey the truth, and apply it to our lives. We shouldn’t just read the Word and pass by things that we are unsure about. There are so many good resources on line and we should also ask questions from our pastors and teachers who have walked with God for many years. God gives us light so that we can understand His truth. The more light we obey, the more light He gives us.

Have a blessed day in the Word, thanking the Lord for making it accessible and understandable to us. Stay safe and healthy.

Dean

-May 30, 2022-

“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13).

“Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:36).

Jesus willingly laid His life for us to set us free us from sin and death. There is no greater love than the love of Jesus. He died in our place, bearing our sin. He made the greatest sacrifice ever. Because He set the example, we can lay down our lives for the brethren. John wrote, “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16). We thank God today for the men and women who have served our country, giving their lives to defend our freedom.

Freedom isn’t free. Though it is free to us, it is not free to those who paid the ultimate price, just as it wasn’t free to Jesus. It cost Jesus His blood on the cross. For those in the military it wasn’t free either. They paid a high price: their lives. For us as believers in the U.S.A., we are doubly free: free in Christ and free in our country. We have some many wonderful freedoms in our great country.

Memorial Day is a day of remembrance that we hold dear. We cannot personally thank those who died fighting for our freedom, but we can show our appreciation with parades, speeches, and other tributes. Let us also thank those who have served and are serving our country in the military. They are heroes, just as those who died for us.

Have a blessed Memorial Day with family and friends. Our church has a Memorial Day picnic and we look forward to it after a three-year hiatus due to Covid-19. Stay safe and healthy.

In loving memory of our fallen,

Dean

-May 29, 2022-

Good morning, happy Lord’s Day,

“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Behold and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which has been brought on me, which the Lord has inflicted in the day of His fierce anger.”

(Lamentations 1:12).

This verse was written by the prophet Jeremiah hundreds of years before the crucifixion of Christ. It is a Messianic prophecy of the suffering of our Savior, Jesus Christ. There were many people who came to Calvary to witness the crucifixion. There was the Roman centurion, the Roman soldiers, some of the Jewish Sanhedrin, the disciples, and the women who followed Jesus. Some believed in Him, others did not.

For the ones who passed by, what did they see? They saw His long, painful death on the cross. They heard Him speak to the Father, to Mary His mother, to John, and to the repentant thief who hung on a cross next to Him. Worse than the physical pain He suffered, He bore our sins and the wrath of God against sin.

In Isaiah 53:3 says, “He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.” He was all alone at the cross and the Father turned His back on Him because He paid the price of our sin. We can barely understand His physical pain, but we can never fathom the depth of His suffering spiritually. The Man of sorrows bore our sorrow.

Thank God we passed by the cross and like the thief on the cross believed in Him and were saved. The hymn writer wrote, “ Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they crucified my Lord? O! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they crucified my Lord? All of us were there in the sense that our sins were laid on Him. He paid our sin debt in full. Let us come and worship Him today!

Have a blessed Lord’s Day pondering what He did for us at the cross. Stay safe and healthy.

In Calvary’s bonds,

Dean

-May 28, 202:-

“A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you look, and see the reward of the wicked.”

(Psalm 91:7-8).

The caption over this anonymous psalm reads, “Safety of Abiding in the Presence of God.” God has a special love for His people and He takes good care of us. As believers we aren’t immune from tragedies, sorrows, problems, and troubles. The Lord doesn’t always deliver us from difficultly, but He is always with us and will see us through by His grace. Then there are times when He protects us, intervenes on our behalf, and rescues us.

We are still going through the Coronavirus pandemic, and just about a week ago, we hit the million mark in deaths in America. That number is huge. But praise be to God; we are still alive! Just like the psalmist said, “A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you.” This Monday is Memorial Day; and this we remember all our servicemen and servicewomen who gave their lives to protect us and preserve our freedoms, let add those million who died from Covid, as well as our police officers and firefighters who died in serving us.

It should make us so thankful to the Lord for how He has kept us and protected us. 1 Samuel 7:12 says, “Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, ‘Thus far the Lord has helped us.’” Can you say that with Samuel: “Thus far the Lord has helped me? God has showered us with His mercy and blanketed us with His grace! Let us thank Him more and trust Him forevermore.

Have a blessed day trusting God no matter what is happening around us. Stay safe and healthy.

In His eternal protection,

Dean