Dean Allen's Daily Devotional

-June 15, 2025-

Good morning beloved, happy Lord’s Day, happy Father’s Day,

“And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.”

(Ephesians 6:4).

Today is the Lord’s Day and Father’s Day. Fathers have a big responsibility before the Lord to bring up their kids in the training and admonition of the Lord. They must be loving and still maintain discipline. They must love their kids in discipline, and discipline them in love.

• Training – Fathers must be good trainers. It starts with them learning from our Heavenly Father, so that they can instruct them in the ways of the Lord. Fathers must set a godly example and be consistent. They can only teach and train what they practice themselves.

• Admonition – To admonish means to challenge, correct, and encourage. It is not easy to do. No one likes to spank their little ones, but it is necessary to mold them in God’s ways. Where there is no discipline, the kids get their own ways and when they grow up have a problem with always wanting their own way. They also lack a respect for authority.

Fathers shouldn’t provoke their kids to wrath. Colossians 3:21 says, Fathers do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.” If we always put them down, tell all the things they are doing wrong without giving them encouragement and positive reinforcement, they will get downtrodden. They will feel they can’t do anything right.

There are so many godly fathers both in the Bible and in our churches. Fathers are role models to their kids.

Have a blessed Father’s Day. Stay safe and healthy,

It just figures that the best figures are father figures.

Dean

-June 14, 2024-

Good morning beloved, happy Saturday,

“So Joshua said to the people, ‘You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord for yourselves to serve Him.’ And they said, ‘We are witnesses!”

(Joshua 24:22).

If life we have many choices and decisions to make, some small and some big. Sometimes we come to a crossroads. A crossroads is defined as, “a crucial point where a decision must be made; an intersection between two or more roads.”

Life presents us with some very important decisions, some of which will change the course of our lives. There are no second chances, no do overs, no rewinds, no mulligans. Sometimes we have quite a bit of time to decide, other times we must make a decision on the spot.

The most important cross roads is to receive Christ or reject Him. By not deciding, we are rejecting Him. This decision has repercussions for this life and for all eternity. Once we to decide to believe in Jesus, we must choose to let Him choose for us. He will lead us and guide us in His will.

There are important decisions that we must make: to stay single or get married; who to marry; to have children or not; which job or career to pursue; which church to attend; which home to buy or apartment to rent; which car to buy or lease, which ministry to be involved in. There are so many others.

May the Lord guide us in every decision, especially at the crossroads. Stay safe and healthy.

When at a crossroads, faith conquers fear, when Jesus makes our path abundantly clear.

Dean

-June 13, 2025-

Good morning beloved, happy Friday,

“Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.”

(2 Corinthians 13:5).

Paul encourages the believers to examine themselves to make sure they are in the faith and look for potential blind spots. It is much harder to see our own weaknesses than to see the weaknesses in others.

The word examine is defined as, “inspect (someone or something) in detail to determine their nature or condition; investigate thoroughly.” The Greek word is doximazo, meaning, “to test, by implication to approve.” God desires us to be approved. He wants all to be ‘A’ students.

Have you recently examined yourself in the light of God’s Word? There are times when we are too hard on ourselves and other times we aren’t hard enough. The Word of God should always be our standard. When Paul was speaking of those eat the bread or drink the cup at the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner, he should, “Examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup” (1 Corinthians 11:28).

When we examine ourselves we must consider our motives as well as our actions and words. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:31, “For if we judge ourselves, we would not be judged.”

Why is it so easy to see the speck in our brother’s eye, but so hard to see the see the log in our own eye? David, hundreds of years earlier prayed in Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” When we examine ourselves we must ask God to search us and expose us.

Have a blessed day and weekend. Stay safe and healthy.

Seeing ourselves through God’s eyes not our own. Holding ourselves accountable.

Dean

-June 12, 2025-

Good morning beloved, happy Thursday,

“Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” If anyone defiles (or destroys) the temple of God, God will destroy him. For temple of God is holy, which temple you are.”

There are three great temple mentioned in the Bible: Solomon’s Temple, Zerubbabel’s Temple, and Herod’s Temple. Solomon’s was by far the greatest of the three. In the future the Jews will build a fourth temple during the Millennium. But there is a greater temple than any of these.

Our bodies are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in us. Just as the first three temples were holy and for the presence of the Lord who resided there. Sadly, over time, the Israelites defiled the temple by placing idols there and forsaking the Lord.

God takes His temples very seriously. They should always be holy. Because our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, we should be holy and we should do nothing to desecrate, defile, or destroy it.

When Jesus was on earth, He went into the temple, and on two occasions drove out the money changers. He said, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise” (John 2:16). Jesus calls the temple “My Father’s house.”

May we take our bodies seriously and be holy and undefiled. Have a blessed day.

It is a great privilege and responsibility to be the temple of God.

Dean

-June 11, 2025-

Good morning beloved, happy Wednesday,

“Now when he was in affliction, he implored the Lord his God, and he humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed to Him; and He received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.”

(2 Chronicles 33:12-13).

The story of King Manasseh is an amazing example of true repentance. His life before was the worst ever for the kings of Israel and Judah; yet God forgave him turned his life around completely.

The definition of the word repent is defined as, “to feel regret or contrition; to change one’s mind; to turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one’s life.” Manasseh’s repentance was sincere and God changed his life.

Manasseh’s rap sheet was as long as his arm. 2 Chronicles 33:1-12 lists every one of his sins. Verse two summarizes his life: “But he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.”

As you read of all his evil and wickedness, you may think he was beyond hope or remedy; he seemed to have gone too far into sin. He not only did evil but he seduced Judah to more evil than all the nations in Canaan before God drove them out.

Even when the Lord spoke to him and to Judah, they would not listen. God had to take severe measures to deal with him. The Lord brought the Assyrians to take him to Babylon with hooks and bronze fetters. He literally hit rock bottom.

Fortunately, he implored the Lord and greatly humbled himself. He turned from sin to salvation. This is what repentance is all about: turning around 180 degrees. It means a change of heart and actions. Peter’s message in Acts 3:19 was, “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshment may come from the presence of the Lord.”

Repentance is not a one time occurrence at conversion, we as believers must also repent and confess our sins and be restored to fellowship with the Lord. We must be broken before the Lord. David and Peter attest to that.

Let us repent and get right with God. He is faithful to hear and forgive us. Have a blessed day. Stay safe and healthy.

No one has strayed too far that God cannot bring him back. Repentance leads to restoration.

Dean