CrossReads Weekly Devotional: Gems from Pastor Jim 10/16/2023

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by Jim Hughes 

 

Blog Featured StandardPs. 115:1 Not to us, O LORD, but to you goes all the glory for your unfailing love and faithfulness.

We are not as careful as we should be about accepting the praise and adoration of others. We like the attention and sometimes let it go to our heads. We get the idea that we deserve it. We accept praise because of our hard work and talents. We somehow get the idea we are worthy of the attention lavished on us. We soak it up and before you know it, we become arrogant and proud of who we are and what we have done.

We are sinners by nature and it is the natural thing for us to do. It takes determination and a right relationship with God for us to resist the temptation. We must constantly be reminded of the fact that only God deserves the praise, honor, and glory others try to bestow on us. We dare not forget that who we are and what we become is all because of God’s mercy and grace. It is God who enables us to become who we are. God alone deserves the credit.

If our heart is right with God, we will want to give him the glory for all things. We will understand that it is because of God’s unfailing love and faithfulness towards us that we are who we are. We will understand that we deserve nothing from God but His wrath, but instead He has given us His mercy and favor.

If our heart is right with God, we will be careful to not hoard the praise of others. Instead, we will give it to the Lord who alone deserves it. We will not take ourselves seriously. We will always understand who we are before Him. We will always strive to please and honor Him in all things. We will understand that whatever we may be able to become or achieve is because of God’s gracious work in us. And, we will understand that all of it can be taken away from us in a moment if we let sin creep in and take away from the Lord the glory due his holy name.

About the Author:

 

Jim HughesSpending his formative years in Ft. Wayne, IN, Jim followed the love of his life to southeast Iowa where they married and have spent the majority of their lives. Jim has pastored several churches throughout his life and has worked many years in local factories to help support his family. The father of two married adult children and one son still at home, Jim is a first-time author.

C Through Marriage came into being through many years of pastoral and life experiences. The book first took on a life of its own over 20 years ago when I sought to address the much publicized moral failures of prominent leaders in the church. In the chapter on Chasity, I include the guideliness that I developed then to protect one’s self from such failures.

I am a firm believer in order to make sense out of life you have to use much common sense. We need to get back to the basics of what has worked for many, many generations. If is isn’t broke, why try to fix it? I strive to return to the basics of what really works in all my writings.

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