Dean Allen's Daily Devotional

-March 15, 2021-

Good morning, happy Monday,

-Salvation Is Only Through Jesus Christ-

“Let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands before you whole” (Acts 4:10).

“Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

The apostles, Peter and John were arrested for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, tells all the authorities of the Jews that this lame man at the temple gate was made whole by the name of Jesus Christ whom they crucified and God raised from the dead.

God gave Peter and John the words to speak through the power of the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus said would happen in Luke 12:11-12, “Now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” The gospel is the good news of salvation that changes lives forever.

Acts 4:13-14 tells us the great effect of Peter’s words through the Holy Spirit, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.” There is such power in the testimony of a child of God. All the Jews had seen this lame man begging for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple, and now was standing before them fully healed and whole.

Peter and John took no credit for this great miracle but gave all the glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. The same is true for us today. It is by the power of the Holy Spirit through the gospel that souls are saved and believers are taught, encouraged, and edified. We cannot take any credit but give all glory to the Lord. There is only one way to salvation and eternal life: through Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). It is not our opinion or our words but His. We carry this message of life and salvation and the Holy Spirit uses it to save people and change their lives.

Have a blessed day spreading and sharing the gospel. Stay safe and healthy.

Dean

-March 14, 2021-

Good morning, happy Lord’s Day,

-Being Fruitful In Our Faith-

“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

(2 Peter 1:5-8).

Growth in the Lord is absolutely essential in the Christian life. Peter, the writer of this epistle, wrote at the end of this second epistle, “But grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the the glory both now and forever. Amen” (2 Peter 3:18).

Growing in faith is so important to our spiritual lives. Peter is beseeching us to add to our faith seven essential characteristics that will encourage and energize us in our walk with Christ. We need to grow in each of these characteristics and never stop growing. We can never say we have made it or arrived spiritually. We must strive for greater and stronger faith.

These seven characteristics are like building blocks in our lives. It reminds me of when, as a very young child, I played with blocks. I would build something with them, then when the game was over, I would knock them down. In our Christian life we build a strong faith to last until the Lord calls us home to glory. Until then we keep growing, adding, and getting stronger in the Lord. Peter says, “But for this very reason, giving all diligence…” In our lesson yesterday we discovered four great blessings we have in Christ: all things that pertain to life and godliness, exceedingly great and precious promises, partaking of the divine nature, and escaping from the corruption in this world through lust. He referring to these things.

Let us add to our faith virtue, the holy character of Jesus Christ; knowledge of the Lord and His Word; self-control in our dealings with people and circumstances, especially difficult ones; perseverance in patiently living under stress, hardship, or pain; godliness in how we behave before God, those who are saved and those who are unsaved; brotherly kindness in showing gentleness and respect to all; and love without which nothing will work.

If we grow in and practice these things, we will neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Savior. In the account of the fig tree, He looked for fruit on the fig tree, but found one. The next day Peter brought up the fig tree had shriveled up and died. The lesson was the fruitlessness of Israel. We must avoid the same results.

A healthy Christian is a growing Christian. If we are not growing, even slowly, we are going backwards and there is even doubt of our salvation. When we read the Word and study it, pray, witness for the Lord, and serve Him, we will grow and bear much fruit. May we measure our progress and growth not by man’s standards but God’s standards as found in His Word.

Have a blessed day growing in our faith. Stay safe and healthy.

Dean

-March 13, 2021-

Good morning, happy Saturday,

-All Things Work Together For Good When We Are In God’s Will-

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

(Romans 8:28).

Today’s verse is one of the most known and loved verses in all the Scriptures. It is a promise from God to His people that, “all things work together for good,” or as it better translated, “God causes all things to work together for good.” There is a condition attached to this promise, it is, “to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Many of God’s promises have conditions attached to them.

Let us look first at the last part of the verse to see who can claim this promise. Only believers in Jesus Christ have the right and privilege, confidence and assurance of knowing all things work together for good. Paul is writing to the believers in Rome and uses the pronoun “we.”

It is not for all believers. We must love God and be the called according to His purpose. John wrote, “We love love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Loving God means obeying Him. Jesus said in John 14:15, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” We cannot just say we love God, we must show it by doing what He wants us to do.

Not only must we love God, but we must be the called according to His purpose. This means we must be in God will so that His plans and purposes for our lives are being accomplished. Paul wrote in Romans 12:1-2, “I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Presenting our bodies and being transformed by the renewing our minds are prerequisites to living out God’s will in our lives. We must yield ourselves fully to the Lord, spirit, soul, and body. When we love God and are the called according to His purpose, we know with absolute assurance and confidence that God will work all things together for good in our lives.

Not everything that happens to us is good, for bad things happen to us even when we are loving God and walking in His perfect will. The key is that God will work things out for the good, our good. He will bring good out of our circumstances. Let us rejoice in the Lord and what He is doing in our lives. He is building and growing our faith through adversity. There is no easy or painless way to spiritual maturity. Jesus said in John 16:33, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” When we realize that God has a plan, and everything that happens to us is from His hand, we can be happy in obeying His every command.

Have a blessed day knowing all things work together for good. Stay safe and healthy.

Dean

-March 12, 2021-

Good morning, happy Friday,

-We Are So Blessed By The Lord-

“As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

(2 Peter 1:3-4).

Peter, the fisherman turned disciple, became a great preacher, missionary, teacher, elder, and servant. He wrote two epistles, and collaborated with John Mark on the Gospel of Mark. He, along with John, and Paul had a mighty influence on the early church.

Peter took to heart the words that the Lord Jesus told him in John 21:15-18. Our Savior restored Peter after he denied him three times, instructing him to “Feed My lambs, tend My sheep, and feed My sheep.” Lambs are the new believers and the sheep are the older, more mature believers. He was the apostle to the Jews, as Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles.

Peter reminds us in this wonderful passage of four tremendous blessings that we and all believers have: we have been given all things that pertain to life and godliness; we have been given exceedingly great and precious promises; we have been made partakers of the divine nature, and we have escaped the corruption of the world through lust. These come to us immediately upon our conversion to Christ by divine power.

• All things that pertain to life and godliness – Everything we have is from God. James wrote, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:17). He has equipped us with everything we need to live for Him and serve Him in this world.

• Exceedingly great and precious promises – There are many wonderful promises we can claim throughout the Scriptures. They are like precious gold nuggets that we must search for and claim for our lives. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 1:20, “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.” God’s promises encourage us so much, just when we need them the most. Books have been written that catalog all the promises in Scripture.

• Made partakers of the divine nature – Just think, we as believers in Christ have the divine nature through the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. When we were born of Adam, we had only the old, sinful nature, but now in Christ, the last Adam, we have the new nature, that is the life of Christ.

• Escaped the corruption in world through lust – We have been delivered from the wrath to come. We live in the world but we are not of the world. In speaking of Lot, Peter wrote, “And delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds” (2 Peter 2:7-8).

We are so blessed. Someone once said, “I am too blessed to be stressed.” We have so much to be thankful for: all things that pertain to life and godliness, exceedingly great and precious promises, partakers of the divine nature, and having escaped the corruption of the world through lust, just to name a few of our spiritual blessings in Christ.

Have a blessed day and weekend counting your blessings. Stay safe and healthy.

Dean

-March 11, 2021-

Good morning, happy Thursday,

-God Is Faithful Who Keeps His Covenant And Mercy With His People Forever-

“Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps His covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments.”

(Deuteronomy 7:9).

Our God is an awesome God. He is the only God, the eternal and faithful God. He created us and blesses us, and will bless us forever. Moses wrote this verse to those who were going to enter the Promised Land. He also wrote in Psalm 90:1-2, “Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.”

God has shown His faithfulness to us His people, those who love and obey and obey Him. Lamentations 3:22-23 says, “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.” He never changes and always fulfills His promises.

All He asks of us that we love Him and keep His commandments. Jesus said, “…If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love Him, and We will come to him and make home with him” (John 14:23). We show our love to Him by obeying Him fully.

We rejoice that we will be with the Lord forever in glory. In heaven there will be ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands. The hymn writer John Newton wrote, “When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise, than when we’d first begun.”

Since our God is so faithful to us, let us be faithful to Him. Let us praise Him and adore Him forever.

Have a blessed day in God’s loving presence. Stay safe and healthy.

Dean