The Devotional

Papa “J” says

Do you think it is possible to be rich in God? This richness is far more secure than the riches of this present age in which we live. 1 Timothy 6:17-19

A few months ago I was in Kentucky with my wife and mother. Along with my cousin and his wife we traveled through the streets where I grew up as a young child. Fifty five to sixty years had past since I last seen those streets in the light of that child. Oh! I Had opportunity to travel through those streets a time or two within those years. Once in my early thirties and once again about ten years ago, but I was so lost on those two trips that I barely knew where I was. This time was different, I did not have to travel through the alley ways to find my way across town. The difference, I had my mom with me. Just her presence made me a child again. I was able to see the street corner where me and my cousins would hang out until dark and the call of our moms would call us home. There were even a few children on that very same corner playing under the street light. If they only knew or even would care to know as the car passed by them that inside were a couple of guys (myself and my cousin) eager to get out of the car and join them. God is good to His people. Proverbs 16:1-3

The Gospel of John

John 1:6-13 This past Sunday our Pastor talked about being a witness of being, “In Christ”. Here the apostle John is referring to the witness of the ordination of Jesus and His Ministry on earth, named John referred to as the baptizer. His parents were visited by an angel of God and their names were Elizabeth and Zacharias and they were commanded by the angel to name the child John instead of Zacharias as was the Jewish custom, so this brings up a question. Why?

God had one specific task, or ministry for this man. At the appointed time John would fulfill a promise of God, found in the book of Malachi 3:1-7, This man John identifies the One who is coming as the Light that he must bare witness of as the true Light that is to come into the world. Isaiah 49:6

John also describes this One coming as the One who made the world, but the world did not know Him. The One who made His own nation, but they did not receive Him, even the gentiles rejected Him. Yet there would be those who did. They like John the Baptizer believed the message of Isaiah 9:6, they believed the good news. So, God sent and ordained His Son, and those that believe the message and the Messenger are reborn, not of blood, not by the will of the flesh, not even by the will of any man or woman. Those that believe in Jesus, believe in Him because it is the will of God.