Every day in the God's Word

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

FRIDAY AUGUST 07, 2026.

SUBJECT: FAITH WORKING THROUGH LOVE AVAILS MUCH!

Memory verse: "For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love." (Galatians 5 vs 6.) 

READ: James 2 vs 14 - 26:

2:14: What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?

2:15: If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food,

2:16: and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body; what does it profit?

2:17: Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

2:18: But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

2:19: You believe that there is one God; you do well. Even the devils believe—and tremble!

2:20: But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?

INTIMATION:

We become Christians through God’s unmerited grace, not as the result of any effort, ability, intelligent choice, or act of service on our part. However, out of gratitude for this free gift, we will seek to help and serve others with kindness, love, and gentleness, and not merely to please ourselves. We are saved by faith, not by deeds. But love for others and for God, is the response of those whom God has forgiven. God’s forgiveness is complete, and Jesus said that those who are forgiven much love much (Luke 7 vs 47). Because faith expresses itself through love, you can check your love for others as a way to monitor your faith.

The characteristics of an effective Christian in any age is work produced by faith, labor prompted by love and endurance inspired by hope. As Christians, our calling from God is to become like Christ (Romans 8 vs 29). To be worthy of this calling means to want to do what is right and good as Christ would. Christians have been created anew in Christ by obedience to the gospel (Romans 6 vs 4 - 5). Since they are recreated in Christ, they respond with good works of thanksgiving. They have been so created, not by good works, but for good works. Such actions show that our commitment to God is real. Deeds of loving service are not a substitute for, but rather a verification of, our faith in Christ.

Faith is the foundation and content of God’s message, hope is the attitude and focus, love is the action. Therefore, your faith is put into action through love. Love involves unselfish service to others. When faith and hope are in place, you are free to love completely because you understand how God loves. While it is true that our good deeds can never earn salvation, true faith always results in a changed life and good deeds. Love endures forever (First Corinthians 13 vs 13). Love is the greatest of all human qualities and is an attribute of God Himself (First John 4 vs 8). Does your faith fully express itself in loving others? 

Your faith should be carried into action with an obedient response to the grace of God. (Second Corinthians 4 vs 15). Your faith should move you into action. In your relationship with one another you should be moved into action to care for one another. God’s intention is that our salvation will result in acts of service. We are not saved merely for our own benefit, but to benefit others in our faith works through love, to serve Christ and build up the church. Christians thus work in response to what God has done for them (First Corinthians 15 vs 10). It is their works that manifest their response to the grace of God. 

Though good works are not a qualification of the saving grace of God, rather it is a manifestation of the obedient and faithful response to the free gift of grace. What is required of a Christian is a faith that works through love. This is the obedient faith that responds to the grace of God. One's recognition of his salvation, by the free gift of grace, motivates him or her to work out of love and thanksgiving. When one trusts in God for his or her salvation by grace, he or she will lovingly respond in obedience to God with a better relationship with his or her fellow human. 

Prayer: Abba Father, thank You for your saving grace bestowed on us in Christ. My faith is in You. Give me the grace to manifest my faith working through love for You and others, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

The Point of Creation

 The Point of Creation

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27)

God made humans in his image so that the world would be filled with reflectors of God. Images of God. Seven billion statues of God. So that nobody would miss the point of creation. 

Nobody (unless they are stone blind) could miss the point of humanity, namely, God — knowing, loving, showing God. The angels cry in Isaiah 6:3, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” It is full of billions of human image-bearers. Glorious ruins. 

But not only humans. Also nature! Why such a breathtaking world for us to live in? Why such a vast universe?

I once read that there are more stars in the universe than there are words and sounds that all humans of all time have ever spoken. Why are there so many? So large? So bright? At such unimaginable distances? The Bible is crystal clear about this: “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1).

If someone asks, “If earth is the only inhabited planet and man the only rational inhabitant among the stars, why such a large and empty universe?” The answer is: It’s not about us. It’s about God. And it’s an understatement. He is more glorious. Greater in power. Greater in scope. Greater brightness. Than all the galaxies combined. One wise man said, the universe is like a peanut that God carries around in his pocket.

God created us to know him and love him and show him. And then he gave us a hint of what he is like: the universe.

Every day in the God's Word

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

THURSDAY AUGUST 06, 2026.

SUBJECT: THANKSGIVING IN WORSHIP!

Memory verse: "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;" (Philippians 4 vs 6.)

READ: Psalm 69 vs 30; 100 vs 4; Colossians 2 vs 6 - 7; 4 vs 2:

Psalm 69:30: I will praise the name of the LORD with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving.

100:4: Enter into His gate with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His Name.

Colossians 2:6: As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,

2:7: rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

4:2: Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.

INTIMATION:

Thanksgiving is expected from all believers for what God has done for us through His grace; acknowledging God’s goodness which is an expression of your faith and confidence in Him. There is no powerful living apart from a life of thanksgiving which, of course, is the Will of God for us. The Christian is zealous in the Lord because of his or her salvation that has come from the Lord through the offering of His Son Jesus Christ as a propitiation for our sins. Prayer and petitions (supplication) are to be made in a spirit of thankfulness to God for all that He has done in our lives. When one truly understands the grace of God, He or she will respond in thanksgiving for all that God has done through Jesus.

God desires an attitude of thanksgiving, not just an act of it. Thanksgiving is an application for more. Being thankful for all the things He has done and is doing in your life is a pathway to receiving your petitions from Him. Therefore, when you have petitioned God for something, immediately begin to thank Him in trust and confidence that the thing you have asked for is on the way coming. The apostle Paul counseled all believers to give thanks in everything; for this is the Will of God in Christ Jesus for them (First Thessalonians 5 vs 18.)

The apostle Paul lived a life of thanksgiving and preached the same to all believers. In some of the passages we read today, his counsel on thanksgiving, as an integral part of worship, is clearly expressed. In our memory verse (Philippians 4 vs 6), Paul counsels all believers to be thankful for what we ask in prayer, and to continuously be thankful and grateful for what He has already done in the past, what He is doing now, and what He is going to do in the future, including answer to your petition.

Jesus, our Messiah and perfect example, lived a life of thanksgiving during His earthly ministry. He knows the power of thanksgiving when communing with the Father, and gave thanks to the Father always. For example; He gave thanks to God when He broke the seven loaves and fishes and fed the four thousand (Matthew 15 vs 36). He gave thanks to God when He took the five loaves and two fishes and fed five thousand (John 6 vs 11). He also thanked God for hearing Him at the tomb of the dead Lazarus (John 11 vs 41). And He gave thanks to God when He gave the bread and wine to His disciples at the Last Super.(Mark 14 vs 22 - 23).

Thanksgiving magnifies the Name of the LORD (Psalm 69 vs 30), and opens the gate of the court of the LORD (Psalm 100 vs 4). It also, multiplies what we have received (Second Corinthians 9 vs 12). For instance, when Jesus lifted up the bread and fishes and gave thanks it multiplied that thousands were fed by the meal of a child. Also, the power of thanksgiving in prayer helps us abound in Christ, drawing our life-giving strength from Christ (Colossians 2 vs 7). The more we draw our strength from Him, the less we are fooled by those who falsely claim to have life’s answers. If Christ is our strength we will be free from human regulations.

The lifestyle of thanksgiving is an evidence of a grateful heart. If a person is grateful for what he already has, it is an indication that the individual is mature enough to receive other blessings. But if a person is always complaining about what he has now, why should the Lord bother to give him anything else to crab and gripe about. When we realize how far God had to send His Son in order to redeem us from condemnation, we respond with a life of thanksgiving. Our good works, therefore, are works of thanksgiving, not works of merit. Christians are motivated because of what they already have in Christ.

Prayer: Abba Father, there is none like You. Your steadfastness never seizes, and Your mercies never come to an end. Your compassion never fails. I will forever remain thankful to You for all Your great and wondrous works in my life. What You cannot do for me let it remain undone, and what You cannot give me may I never have it, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Jesus Bought Your Endurance

 Jesus Bought Your Endurance

“This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” (Luke 22:20)

What that means is that the new covenant, promised most explicitly in Jeremiah 31 and 32, was secured and sealed by the blood of Jesus. The new covenant comes true for God’s people who trust the Messiah, Jesus, because Jesus died to establish it.

And what does the new covenant secure for all who belong to Christ? Perseverance in faith to the end. 

Listen to Jeremiah 32:40, 

“I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.” 

The everlasting covenant — the new covenant — includes the unbreakable promise, “I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.” They may not. They will not. Christ sealed this covenant with his blood. He purchased your perseverance if you are in Jesus Christ through faith.

If you are persevering in faith today, you owe it to the blood of Jesus. The Holy Spirit, who is working in you to preserve your faith, is honoring the purchase of Jesus. God the Spirit works in us what God the Son obtained for us. The Father planned it. Jesus bought it. The Spirit applies it — all of them infallibly. 

God is totally committed to the perseverance and eternal security of his blood-bought children.

Every day in the God's Word

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 05, 2026.

SUBJECT: APPROACH GOD BOLDLY IN THE NAME OF JESUS!

Memory verse: “Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full." (John 16 vs 24.)

READ: John 16 vs 23 - 24:

John 16:23: “And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. 

16:24: Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

INTIMATION:

Prior to the coming of Jesus, people approached God through priests. The priest, during the Old Testament era, will go to the holy of holies once in a year to offer sacrifice for the atonement of sins of the people. But after He came and accomplished the task given to Him by the Father; the atonement for the sins of the whole world, ‘all authority was handed over to Him by the Father’ (Matthew 28 vs 18).

After the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, any believer could approach God directly. A new day has dawned and now all believers are priests, talking with God personally and directly. We approach God, not because of our own merit, but because Jesus, our great High Priest, has made us acceptable to God. 

“Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and those under the earth” (Philippians 2 vs 9 - 10). Jesus, consequently, gave us the power of attorney in the use of His name, and whatever we ask in prayer in His name will be given to us. 

The Scriptures, in Hebrews 10 vs 19 - 23, say, "Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful."

The Most Holy Place ("the Holiest ") in the temple was sealed from view by a veil. Only the high priest could enter this holy room once a year on the the Day of Atonement when he offered the sacrifice for the nation's sins. But Jesus' death removed the curtain, and all believers may walk into God's presence at any time. 

To go right into the presence of God, we come not halfheartedly or with improper motives or pretence, but with pure, individual, and sincere worship. We can know that we have "a true heart" if we evaluate our thoughts and motives according to His Word. Believers can approach God boldly, free from our "evil conscience" and in full assurance because of the work of Jesus Christ. 

We can go to God without doubting, knowing that He will hear and answer us under the new covenant, our hearts and consciences are cleansed completely, not partially or temporarily. Our clean consciences allow us to enter God's presence with boldness. 

Finally, the imagery of our bodies having been "washed with pure water" actually pictures an inward cleansing. Just as baptism is an outward sign that represents the purification that Christ does inside us, so this washing speaks of an internal cleansing from sin. Once cleansed, we can approach God. 

We have significant privileges associated with our new life in Christ: (1) We have personal access to God through Christ and can draw near to Him without an elaborate system; (2) we may grow in faith, overcome doubts and questions, and deepen our relationship with God; (3) we may enjoy motivation from one another; (4) we may worship together. 

By virtue of what God has provided through Jesus, believers are to come to God with boldness. It is through faith in the blood of Jesus that we can confidently approach God. Our boldness is based on faith, not on the ceremonial performance of worship. We can have confidence that we will enter into heaven through the blood of Jesus because we have faith in the cross. Our confidence is based on our faith in the grace of God that was revealed through the sacrificial offering of the blood on the cross. 

Jesus is the new and living way through whom we have access to heaven. Heaven is forever open to all those who would approach God through Jesus. Jesus continually works on our behalf in order to cleanse us of sin. 

Prayer: Abba Father, You are so loving, and faithful, even in our unfaithfulness. Give me the grace to always ask in faith in the Name of Jesus, that I may receive, and my joy will be full, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

10 Things “Yahweh” Means

 10 Things “Yahweh” Means

God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.” (Exodus 3:15)

God’s name is almost always translated LORD (all caps) in the English Bible. But the Hebrew would be pronounced something like “Yahweh,” and is built on the word for “I am.”

So every time we hear the word Yahweh, or every time you see LORD in the English Bible, you should think: this is a proper name (like Peter or John) built out of the word for “I am” and reminding us each time that God absolutely is.

There are at least 10 things that the name Yahweh, “I AM,” says about God:

1. He never had a beginning. Every child asks, “Who made God?” And every wise parent says, “Nobody made God. God simply is. And always was. No beginning.”

2. God will never end. If he did not come into being he cannot go out of being, because he is being.

3. God is absolute reality. There is no reality before him. There is no reality outside of him unless he wills it and makes it. He is all that was eternally. No space, no universe, no emptiness. Only God.

4. God is utterly independent. He depends on nothing to bring him into being or support him or counsel him or make him what he is.

5. Everything that is not God depends totally on God. The entire universe is utterly secondary. It came into being by God and stays in being moment by moment on God’s decision to keep it in being.

6. All the universe is by comparison to God as nothing. Contingent, dependent reality is to absolute, independent reality as a shadow to substance. As an echo to a thunderclap. All that we are amazed by in the world and in the galaxies is, compared to God, as nothing.

7. God is constant. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He cannot be improved. He is not becoming anything. He is who he is.

8. God is the absolute standard of truth and goodness and beauty. There is no law-book to which he looks to know what is right. No almanac to establish facts. No guild to determine what is excellent or beautiful. He himself is the standard of what is right, what is true, what is beautiful.

9. God does whatever he pleases and it is always right and always beautiful and always in accord with truth. All reality that is outside of him he created and designed and governs as the absolute reality. So he is utterly free from any constraints that don’t originate from the counsel of his own will.

10. God is the most important and most valuable reality and person in the universe. He is more worthy of interest and attention and admiration and enjoyment than all other realities, including the entire universe.

Every day in the God's Word

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY AUGUST 04, 2026.

SUBJECT: WE ARE CREATED IN CHRIST FOR GOOD WORKS! 

Memory verse: "Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. (Titus 2 vs 14.)

READ: Ephesians 2 vs 4 - 10: 

2:4: But God, who is rich in mercy, because for His great love with which He loved us,

2:5: even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, (by grace you have been saved),

2:6: and raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 

2:7: that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

2:8: For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 

2:9: not of works, lest anyone should boast.

2:10: For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

INTIMATION:

We are saved and became Christ followers through God’s unmerited grace, not as the result of any effort, ability, intelligent choice, or act of service on our part. However, out of gratitude for this free gift of salvation, we will seek to do good works; helping and serving others with kindness, love, and gentleness. While no action or work we do can help us obtain salvation, God’s intention is that our salvation will result in acts of service and good works. We have been created anew in Christ by obedience to the gospel. We have been so created, not by good works, but for good works. 

The Christ follower owes all that he or she is to God who gave us a reason for transforming our thinking and life (Romans 12 vs 1 - 2). Through the manifestation of God’s grace, Christ followers have been driven by faith to conform their lives to the Will of God. They do good works in thanksgiving to the grace of God (Second Corinthians 4 vs 15). The Christ follower is not saved by works of merit that he or she has devised according to his or her own desires. They are saved for the purpose that God might work through them. Therefore, they do good works in response to what God has done for them. 

It is our works that manifest our response to the grace of God. They are indication of our thankful response to God for His gift of grace. It is noteworthy that final judgement will be based on our deeds because they proclaim what sort of heart is within us. When we realize how far God had to send His Son in order to redeem us from condemnation, we respond with a life of thanksgiving. Our good works, therefore, are works of thanksgiving, not works of merit. We should continue to believe in God in order to maintain good works. Our maintaining good works manifest our belief in God and appreciation for His grace.

While good works can’t save us or even increase God’s love for us, they are true indications of our faith and love for Christ. Discipleship for Christ followers is not optional, but a requirement. Every believer should be involved in good works. In carrying out good works, Christ followers will develop a solid spiritual foundation of a good character that is fit for eternal dwelling. Good works manifest the goodness of one’s heart. We therefore, judge ourselves by our works, for it is by our works that we manifest our hearts (Second Corinthians 5 vs 10). 

Christ followers are the light of the world, and their light should shine before everyone that when they observe or see their light, which is their good works, they will glorify our Father in heaven. If we live for Christ, we will glow like lights, showing others what Christ is like. Christ followers must behave with integrity among the unbelievers in whose presence they live. They must behave in a way that presents hope to others. In doing this, they influence others for good, and also bring glory to God. If your actions are above reproach, even hostile people will end up praising God. Gracious, godly, and winsome behavior on the part Christ followers could even win some of the unsaved souls to the Lord. 

Prayer: Abba Father, thank You for Your free gift of salvation to me. Give me the grace to represent Christ appropriately in good works, that people will see my good works and glorify You, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!