Bennie Fisher, John Keyes, Jeanette Cloyd, Randy Davis, Randy Davis, Andy Gillespie, Mark A. Hutson and Pat Pajak (all writers from previous weeks) are featured in new devotions for this week. You can contact any of the writers by sending an email to edhandkins7@bellsouth.net.
Check out the “The Planning Process,” a six step process you can use to plan anything in your church. Check it out on the “Planning” page at www.edhandkinsministries.com.
October 28 He is alive!
For I know that my Redeemer lives. Job19:25 NKJV
Today's Readings: Job 19 Mark 1, 2
While reading today's devotion, glance outside and look at the changes that are taking place in nature. The leaves have either fallen or are changing color. The grass is getting a little less green. Yes, winter is right at the doorstep of autumn's door. I don't think it is by mistake that today's verse is from Job 19.
At church, we sing alot of the same songs over and over again. If we are not careful, these songs can be sung so much that we can miss the powerful message. There are some songs that seem more powerful to me now than when I first heard them. Two of these songs, “Because He Lives" and "He Lives," mirror the words of Job 19:25. We can sing these songs when we are on the mountaintop of life or when we are in the darkest valleys of life. When we are reminded of the fact that Jesus our Lord and Savior is alive, we can find the strength and the right perspective to face anything that life might deal out to us.
On November 9, 2006, I found out that I have Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. This is a very slow and mild Leukemia. I don't know what the future holds for me, but I know who holds my future in His hands. So whatever you might be facing today or in the days ahead, just remember Jesus is Alive!
Prayer: Take time to acknowledge that God is alive in your life.
Bennie Fisher
October 29 Who Is This Jesus?
And they were terrified and asked one another, "Who then is this? Even the wind and the sea obey Him!" Mark 4:41 HCSB
Today’s Readings: Job 20 Mark 3, 4
When the Japanese invaded China before World War II, Gladys Aylward was a missionary in Yangcheng. She was forced to flee the city with 100 orphans. While hiding in the mountains, she spent a sleepless night worrying about making it to safety. The next morning a girl tried to encourage Gladys by reminding her about Moses parting the Red Sea. Gladys responded, "But I'm not Moses." The orphan replied, "No, but Jehovah is still God."
The disciples had been with Jesus almost two years. They had seen miracles and had been learning about the Kingdom. But through the storm on the Sea they saw Jesus like never before. As they awakened Him they questioned His concern for their safety.
When storms come upon us, we may feel like Jesus doesn’t care. The truth is, because He does care, sometimes He leads us into storms; it is in the storms that we see Him. We see that no storm frightens Him. We see that there is no storm beyond His control. We see that He can bring us through the storms. Experiencing a storm does not mean that Jesus has left us. The disciples knew the answer to their rhetorical question, "Who then is this?" The real question is, "What do we do now?" Jesus wants us to put our faith in Him, trusting Him to save us and to keep us through the storms of life.
Prayer: Praise Jesus for being supreme God. Identify the storms you are facing and ask Him to help you trust Him to bring You through.
John Keyes
October 30 Feed My People
[Jesus said] You give them something to eat. Mark 6:37a NIV
Today’s Readings: Job 21 Mark 5, 6
In the familiar Bible story of the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus admonishes his disciples to give the people something to eat. Perhaps Jesus’ loving instruction was most poignantly revealed to me in a small Kazakhstan church.
Our mission team arrived at the church one evening, hours after the day’s bread supply was depleted. The pastor proudly showed us their ministry operation. We saw the crude ovens where the bread was baked and the racks where the freshly baked bread was placed, waiting to be sliced and given to those who would come seeking it.
The pastor told us of the children to whom they minister – hungry, unkempt children who roam the neighborhood. The church quickly learned that if the children were given only one slice of bread, they would not eat it, saving it, instead, for a time when they were even hungrier than at that moment. If they were given two slices of bread, the ravenous children would quickly devour one slice, but no matter how hungry they were, they would save the other slice for later. The pastor’s words brought tears to my eyes as I thought of children whose lives were so difficult that they never knew when they would eat again.
May we, like the examples before us, follow Jesus’ instructions to give the hungry something to eat.
Prayer: As you thank God for the food He provides for you today, ask Him to show you ways to minister to those less fortunate.
Jeanette Cloyd
October 31 You Lead, I’ll Follow
Yield now and be at peace with Him; thereby good will come to you. Please receive instruction from His mouth and establish His words in your heart. Job 22:21-22 NASB
Today’s Readings: Job 22 Mark 7, 8
I once owned a dog, but she had one problem. She didn’t do well on a leash. She would pull one way when I wanted her to go another. I patiently taught her to “heel.” Once she learned to heel, her life on the leash improved considerably.
Job had problems. His friends were not much help. However, there is a piece of advice that comes from his pain that we need to heed: things are better when you follow the Lord. Eliphaz reminded Job that if he yielded to the Lord good things would follow. He begged Job to receive instruction from the Lord and place His words in his heart.
I don’t know about you, but from time to time I need to hear that advice. I’m more like my dog. I have a tendency to want to go my own way and do my own thing. When I yield to God I have peace in my life and my Father blesses me beyond measure. I need to heed my Father’s instruction and hide His words in my heart.
What about you? Have you yielded to the Father? Are you receiving His instruction and hiding His words in your heart?
Prayer: Ask God to show you where you need to “yield” to Him.
Randy Davis
November 1 God Our Rock
I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come? Psalm 121:1 NASB
Today’s Readings: Psalms 121 Mark 9, 10
Mountains are favorite places for my brother and me to vacation together. We have so many good pictures to show of majestic wonder! Most wonderful of all is the sense of nearness to God we experience there. It goes far beyond a euphoric high brought about at a high altitude. We have learned that the Maker of the high places – who is Himself most high – is present there in joy, peace, beauty and communion with our souls.
Likely, the unnamed psalmist wrote of his faith in the near presence of God to meet his needs as he looked at the range of mountains surrounding Jerusalem. God’s holy mountain was where the temple sat and God’s literal presence resided. To him, there was just nothing like looking out from the dwelling place of his Lord and knowing he stood so near to the God of life and the whole earth.
Some of my greatest worship experiences have occurred in the Rocky Mountains of the American west. One of the common Bible themes, too, is that of God as our Rock. Among my favorite verses is Psalm 61:2, “… Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” So whether I’m sitting in a mountain chapel and gazing out at the glories of creation’s elevated splendor, or just recalling these things as I read God’s word at home in Illinois, I worship with faith overflowing toward Almighty God – “my rock and my salvation” (Psalm 62:2).
God is glorious, mighty and sufficient!
Prayer: Tell God how much you trust Him, depend on Him and love Him. Then praise Him for His holy grandeur, goodness and greatness in your life. Andy Gillespie
November 2 Are you giving God your all?
For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living. Mark 12:44 KJV
Today’s Readings: Job 23, 24 Mark 11, 12
Isn’t it funny how we have such a distorted view of what is great and what is not. Many times if we have a large number of people in church we say, “Oh, that was a great service!” When not one person makes a decision for Christ. Or with very little effort we do something huge and consider it great because of its size and complain about how much we had to do.
Just like the parable Jesus is telling here, the one person who placed a major impact on my life was not a great preacher or teacher, business man who gave generously to a cause, but an 80 year old lady I met while on a mission trip to Bulgaria. You see every day we would go to the town where she lived at 7 a.m. and we would “prayer-walk” (that is walk around the town and ask God to open the hearts of the people to be responsive to him, and pray for people we met.) Everyday this lady would be the first one at the church, everyday she would make this more than 5 mile journey around that little town, pouring out her heart to God for her people. She even fixed a lunch one day for the mission team, which meant she had to rise early that day. This may not sound like much, until you saw her doing all of this on a set of old rugged crutches. Yes, she was crippled, but so concerned for her people to know Christ. She would endure the pain of the 5 mile journey. So the next time you feel the urge to admire the big work or complain about the cost, ask yourself, “Did we give all? Did we truly sacrifice?
Prayer: Pray today that God will open your eyes to the opportunity to give in a way that is pleasing to Him. Mark A. Hutson
November 3 The Anvil and The Hammer
Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away! Mark 13:31 NKJV
Today’s Readings: Job 25 Mark 13, 14
A man once walked into an old blacksmith shop and saw a pile of well-used and worn-out hammers piled in a wooden box in a corner. Out of curiosity, he asked how many hammers the blacksmith had gone through over the years. The blacksmith told him that he had had dozens upon dozens of brand new hammers, but after the constant pounding and beating upon the anvil, it eventually took its toll and he was forced to buy another. As time passed, the old worn hammers would eventually be relegated to the wooden box. Then the same man asked how many anvils the blacksmith had used through the years, and to his surprise the answer was “just one!” He then explained that the anvil wears out the hammers, not the other way around. The first time I heard that story I thought about how various rulers, nations, armies, and philosophies have beat against the Word of God. They have pounded a steady rhythm of ridicule, mockery, derision, and scorn, yet the anvil of God’s Word still stands. Wooden boxes have been filled for centuries with the worn-out and useless hammers that have tried to defame, defeat, and denigrate the everlasting Word of God, but as our text states, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away!”
Prayer: Lord, thank You for Your totally trustworthy and enduring Word, forever settled in heaven. Thank you that we can base our hope and beliefs on an anvil and not a hammer. Pat Pajak