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Ephesians 6:14, Psalm 51:5

Honest to God!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
August 3, 2025

The book of Psalms is a book of songs! It contains prayers, outcries, moans, groans, and explosions of praise, as well as cries of excitement and thanks and just about every other expression of human emotion you can imagine. Knowles explains, “They are written by various people over a long period of time. King David wrote some of them, and priests and directors of the temple music wrote others. The Psalms cover the whole range of our experiences of God, from praising him for our creation and salvation to complaining about our situation or circumstances. Above all, they are honest with God and help us to talk to him straight from the heart.” They express the truth to God. The belt of truth is one of the parts of God’s armor for doing spiritual warfare. When we’re girded about with the belt of truth, we have the strength to stand up to attacks from the evil one when otherwise we might fall prey to his schemes.

One of the key messages of the Psalms is honesty with God regarding our sinfulness. After his huge sin of adultery and murder, David breaks before God with the truth. He writes, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart” (Psalm 51:5). Without being truthful with God about our moral, ethical and spiritual failures, we’ll never find peace with God, and we’ll be fighting battles on our own the rest of our lives. The Greek word for confession is “homologeo.” It means to “speak the same thing.” We must agree with God about our failures, weaknesses, and sinfulness. We not only need to be truthful with ourselves, but we must also be truthful with God. Expressing that truth about our failure and character will give us strength. Many think admitting they’re wrong is a weakness! In God’s economy, it’s strength. John says (1 John 1:9) that if we “confess” our sins to God, He will always forgive us, restore us, cleanse us, and set us back on the right path of life with renewed vigor to fight the good fight. If we deny our sin, we are on our own. God sent His Son to die for our sins. He’s the savior of sinners, or he’s not your savior.

Max Lucado put it this way: “The Message is clear. As long as Jesus is one of many options, he is no option. You don’t need a burden bearer as long as you can carry your burdens alone. As long as your situation brings you no grief, you will receive no comfort. And as long as you can take him or leave him, you might as well leave him because he won’t be taken half-heartedly. But when you mourn, when you get to the point of sorrow for your sins, when you admit that you have no other option but to cast all your cares on him, and when there is truly no other name that you can call, then cast all your cares on him, for he is waiting in the midst of the storm.”

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Ephesians 6:14

Gird Up Your Loins

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
August 2, 2025

Levi hadn’t invented his jeans in Jesus’ day. The normal dress was loose-flowing robes. This was true in the Old Testament days as well. The robes that people normally wore were impractical for hard work or fast travel but, more specifically, were a real hindrance in battle. Therefore, the phrase “gird up your loins” is a common expression throughout the bible. There was a belt that could be worn around the waist in which the loose ends of the robe could be snugly tucked into to allow for free action of movement. When Elijah ran ahead of Ahab to Jezreel (1 Kings 18:46), the text says, “He girded up his loins, and ran…” Some modern translations say, “tucking his cloak into his belt,” and he ran ahead of Ahab. Others simply say he “wrapped his coat around himself.” God called Job to “gird up his loins” (Job 38:8), Which also appears in several other passages. The various translations say the same thing but use different phrases: brace yourself (NIV), be strong (NCV), prepare yourself (NKJV), get ready (CEV), and be ready (CEV).

The common thread with the various translations is the idea of strengthening oneself for imminent action! Something is going down, and you need to get the loose ends wrapped up so you can deal with it without any hindrances. According to Paul, Ephesians 6:14, the belt into which we tuck up our loose ends is called “the belt of truth.” He says, “Stand strong, be ready! Let the truth be like a belt around your waist” (CEV). In keeping with the fact that we’re talking about a battle for the thoughts and minds, Peter addresses us with a similar exhortation. He writes in 1 Peter 1:13, “gird up the loins of your mind” (KJV).

When we are enveloped in the truth, we gain the strength to withstand numerous challenges. Kent Hughes once vividly imagined the Apostle Paul at the end of his career, donned in the armor he described in Ephesians 6. Hughes paints a picture of Paul, “He has worn his war belt so long that it is sweaty through and through and salt-stained and comfortable like an old horse’s bridle, and it holds everything perfectly in place. The belt of truth … has girded him tight for years, so that it has permeated his life and reigns within. He is armed with the clear eyes of a clean conscience. He can face anything.” Jesus once proclaimed that “the truth will set you free.” This statement holds true on multiple levels. God’s truth in Christ liberates us from the shackles of sin and death. Truth, when adopted as a guiding principle, frees us from the snares of deceit we often weave in our lives, which frequently lead to pain and setbacks. But if we’re girded with truth, we can, like Paul, confront anything!

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1 Corinthians 10:14, 1 Corinthians 6:18, 2 Timothy 2:22, 1 Timothy 6:10-12

A Time to Flee

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
August 1, 2025

James tells us to “submit to God and resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” But sometimes, it’s wiser for us to flee. I did a search on this subject and found that there are at least three things that believers should flee from. The first one is found in 1 Corinthians 10:14. It says, “Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.” Commenting on this verse, David Jeremiah writes, “An idol is anything that comes between you and God. Anything of value to you could be an idol. When you begin to realize that something is taking the place of God in your life, you don’t need to sit and ponder it. You don’t need to write a thesis or call a meeting about it. You need to flee! Every moment of personal idolatry is a moment of spiritual danger. It is wear and tear on your soul.”

The second thing we are to flee from is “sexual immorality.” That’s exactly what 1 Corinthians 6:18 says. Paul instructs Timothy similarly. He says, “Flee from youthful lusts” (2 Timothy 2:22). David Jeremiah adds a great comment regarding this verse as well. He writes, “Sexual temptation is a demonic trump card; there’s something unique and terrible about its power. The devil uses it for those in ministry, those in marriage, and those maturing. He uses it particularly for those perched in precarious positions—those in transition, whether through the storms of adolescence, the trials of marriage, or the temptations of business travel.” Nothing will ruin our relationship with God, others, and ourselves more completely than sexual sin. It has been the downfall of many believers and non-believers as well. We can say it was the downfall of King David as well as his son, Solomon.

The third thing we are to flee from is “Greed.” 1 Timothy 6:10-12 is a fascinating passage. It says, “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. But as for you, O man (person!) of God, flee these things! Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith.” Obviously, materialism is a form of idolatry, but it deserves a special focus, as Paul knew. When something, anything, is more important to us than God, it is an idol. It comes between us and God and becomes the focus of our lives. I’ve heard many people say they cannot give what they want to give to God’s work because they have this expense or that expense, or they need this or need that. The truth is when we fail to support God’s work with the resources He blessed us with, we open the door of our lives to all kinds of evil as well as “pangs.” Truly, if you own something or need something or want something you can’t do without, you don’t own it. It owns you! Jesus made it clear you cannot serve both God and money at the same time! Neither can you love them both at the same time! The Living Bible translates Deuteronomy 14:23 this way, “The purpose of tithing is to teach you always to put God first in your lives.” Nothing reveals our true priorities in life more than our checkbooks.

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2 Corinthians 4:4, Matthew 16:23, 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, James 1:25

Ignorance is not Bliss!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
July 31, 2025

In our spiritual warfare, we do not struggle with flesh and blood. Paul explains to the Ephesians in Chapter Six, beginning in verse 12. He says that our battle is with “…the cosmic powers of this present darkness…against the spiritual forces of evil.” Although Satan has an arsenal of weapons, the primary target of his attacks is the mind! When Peter spoke to Jesus about not going to Jerusalem to accomplish His purpose, Jesus replied, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man,” (Matthew 16:23). 2 Corinthians 4:4 clearly says that Satan, “…the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers…” Satan distracts believers from God’s purposes, and his wiles deceive unbelievers with lies.

He knows that to control our thoughts is to control us! We are all in a battle for the mind, a battle that is not to be taken lightly. Paul explains this battle in 2 Corinthians chapter 10. He writes in verses 4 and 5, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Strongholds refers to positions held that are contrary to God’s Word. Arguments are mental exchanges. Pretensions are false views that contradict our need-to-Know God’s Word. Taking captive our thoughts is only managed through the study of God’s Word. Paul often refers to what he calls “sound doctrine.” See 1 Timothy 1:10, 2 Timothy 4:3, Titus 1:9 and 2:1. The Greek word which is translated as “sound” is “hugiaino,” which literally in this context means to be “healthy” in mind. Robert Morey says, “When the great truths of the Bible are taught to the people in any church, they will generally become spiritually, mentally, and physically healthy. Their families will be healthy. The church will be healthy.”

In my years as a pastor, I always made sure that we offered many Bible study opportunities.  We did that, not just because that’s what Churches do but because we understand that life issues are truly related to thinking correctly about God, ourselves, the world around us, others, and the spiritual forces that have arrayed themselves against us. It truly is not enough to attend a worship service for one hour a week! Since that’s what most Christians settle for, the knowledge of Biblical truth is declining. An article in the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society said this, “Gallup polls have tracked this descent to a current ‘record low.’ Not even able to get started with the canon in either Testament, most Americans now cannot name the first book of the Bible and half cannot name even one of the four Gospels. Stephen Prothero, professor of religion, Boston University, highlighted this in a 2007 article in the Los Angeles Times, which was bluntly entitled ‘We live in the land of biblical idiots.’ Please, “think” carefully about” what James says; “But the truly happy people are those who carefully study God’s perfect law that makes people free, and they continue to study it” (James 1:25 NCV). Get in a Bible Study today, for it is the key to your spiritual and mental health!

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John 8:41-45

My Name Is Gossip

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
July 30, 2025

Jesus was the subject of slander very often during his years of ministry. He was, Himself, accused of being insane, possessed by a demon, and of having committed violations of God’s law. He did violate their laws, but never God’s laws. He did not stone the adulterous. He picked corn and ate it on the Sabbath. He healed on the Sabbath and other infractions that the religious leaders had included as part of God’s laws. It is true that Jesus did these things, but it’s not true that they were violations of God’s laws. Truths can be misunderstood or even twisted intentionally, and the result might be defamation of character. The religious leaders of Jesus day sought to discredit Jesus and His teaching in any way they could. Once, according to John Chapter 8, they were striving against Jesus and blurted out, “We were not born of sexual immorality.” They were, of course, referring to Jesus’ birth to Mary. Jesus’ claim that His father was God was categorically rejected. But responding to the subject of the paternity of the accusations made against him, he replied, “You are of your father the devil…”(John 8:41f).

Philip Ryken quotes Jochem Douma’s work on the 10 commandments. Douma attaches gossip to the 9th commandment, “Thou shalt not lie.” Yet he expands the understanding to include “truth” telling twisted to mean something more than it should. He writes, “Perhaps the one spreading gossip is not lying, but he or she is being untruthful: saying things that are true, but in the context of slander, is deceitful. The neighbor’s mistakes, faults, and shortcomings are discussed in minute detail. People realize this kind of chatter gets them an attentive audience. For it is a universal phenomenon that we would rather hear something bad about our neighbor than something good. And something dirty always sticks long after the conversation has died. As Martin Luther put it in his Large Catechism, “Reputation is something quickly stolen, but not quickly returned.”

“I have no respect for justice and no mercy for defenseless humanity. I ruin without killing; I tear down homes; I break hearts and wreck lives. You will find me in the pews of the pious as well as in the haunts of the unholy. I am wily, cunning, and malicious and gather strength with age. I have made my way where greed, mistrust, and dishonor are unknown, yet my victims are as numerous as the sands of the sea and often as innocent! I feed on good and bad alike. I never forgive and seldom forget. What’s my name? My name is gossip!” Gossip is one of the “methods” of Satan to divide and conquer believers. We must be alert to His schemes. Gossip needn’t be false to be evil—a lot of truth shouldn’t be passed around.

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Proverbs 18:8, Matthew 16:23

Gossip!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
July 29, 2025

Some years ago, Kathy and I went to Michigan to perform the wedding for the daughter of the very first couple I married 25 years earlier. It was a Saturday night wedding and reception. We got up very early Sunday morning to drive back to Nebraska. On our way, we listened to several preachers on local radio stations that we passed. Outside of Chicago, we picked up the Moody Channel and heard Paul Nyquist’s message. Paul, the President of Moody, used to be the pastor of Evangelical Bible Church in Omaha. He said something that I just had to remember. I don’t believe it was originally with him, but it struck me. I’ll paraphrase it here: “Great people talk about ideas. Good people talk about things. The vast majority of others talk about people.” This is a stark reminder of the dangers of gossip, a tool of Satan that we must be vigilant against.

Previously, in my devotions, I discussed the “schemes” of the Devil, particularly his scheme dealing with unforgiveness, as clearly identified in 2 Corinthians. Another “method” of Satan in his arsenal of weapons of Spiritual warfare is gossip. When Peter spoke to Jesus about not going to Jerusalem to accomplish His purpose, Jesus rebuked, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man,” (Matthew 16:23). It is of utmost value to set our minds on “ideas” or principles of God and right living rather than on the lives of others: celebrities, politicians, or even our neighbors. It’s a much greater endeavor to think about and wrestle with and discuss the things of God.

According to Proverbs, “The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to a man’s inmost parts” (Prov. 18:8). But no matter how tasty it is, gossip is still a concoction of Satan and poison to our souls. Philip Ryken writes, “As wrong as it is to gossip, it is just as wrong to listen to gossip.” He proceeds to quote an “old rabbinic saying, “slander kills three: the one who speaks it, the one who listens to it, and the one about whom it is spoken.” He continues his discussion by quoting the Puritan Thomas Watson. He said, “He that raises a slander carries the devil in his tongue, and he that receives it carries the devil in his ear.” Ryken then concludes his views by saying, “Watson was right: Whenever we listen to gossip, we become implicated in its sin. We get drawn into making judgments about others when it is not our place to judge. The problem is that most of us like to hear a little gossip. We have an appetite for it, especially if it’s juicy.” But we are not unaware of his schemes!

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Ephesians 6:11, 2 Corinthians 2:11

Bitter Believers

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
July 28, 2025

I would agree with Robert Morey, who describes the objectives of satanic warfare as twofold. He writes, “First, Satan wants to keep sinners from hearing the gospel. Or, if they hear it, to keep them from responding to it in faith. Second, once someone has become a child of God, Satan will try to make that Christian discouraged, bitter, sad, defeated, and depressed. He knows he cannot snatch that person’s soul back, so he will do his best to make a believer’s life ineffective.” I would add that he not only makes the believer ineffective, but he also makes him miserable! I’ve known way too many “sourpuss” believers, who live bitter lives and spread their bitterness around to others.

The second objective of making the believer ineffective and miserable in their Christian life is a major step in advancing his first objective of preventing others from coming to faith. When non-believers see the unhappy, bitter, angry, forlorn Christian, they see only reasons for not wanting any part of that kind of faith. I’ve shared the Gospel with people who have refused the offer of God’s free gift of life because, as they put it, “I’ve known too many Christians.” All some Christians focus on is “don’t do this, don’t do that.” They are miserable and want everyone else to be miserable, too. When Satan accomplishes his objective of reducing believers to a depressed, discouraged, and despairing state, he has caught us in his web of lies and deceit. When we fall prey to the deceitful ways of Satan, we lose the joy of our Christian experience. We are susceptible to all kinds of miserable attitudes and impulses. But if we understand these for what they are: attacks in the Spiritual battle against forces of evil in dark places, we are aided in turning the tide in the battles of life.

Unforgiveness is one of the most effective weapons of Satan. We are instructed to forgive others as God has forgiven us. Jack Hayford writes, “The human capacity to forget God’s gracious gift of forgiveness and allow smallness of soul to breed unforgiveness is soberingly warned against.” He goes on to discuss how unforgiveness restricts what God can do through believers in the lives of others. He also discusses how the spirit of unforgiveness exacts “its toll on our bodies, minds, and emotions.” You might remember that when Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he instructed them to forgive a sinning brother. He had repented of his sin and had mended his ways, yet there was this wall that still existed between the members of the little fellowship and this sinner. Paul instructs them to forgive him and bring him back into the fellowship. They were to drop their bitterness and anger toward him and open their arms again. The reason that forgiveness is such an important aspect in a believer’s life, Paul explains in 2 Corinthians 2:11, is “so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.”

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Ephesians 6:11

Just Stand Firm!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
July 27, 2025

Ephesians 6 gives us the tactical advantage in our struggle with evil. We are under attack from three primary sources in our spiritual lives: the world, the flesh, and the Devil. The world is the system around us. The flesh represents the ungodly impulses within us. The Devil is the spiritual force that is always allied against us. Verse 11 tells us to “put on the whole armor of God that we may be able to stand against the schemes of the Devil. We do not wrestle or struggle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.” Did you notice how many times the word “against” appeared? Five times there are forces that are mentioned that come against us. But the introductory verse tells us that our charge in this battle is to “stand up against” the schemes of the devil. What are the schemes of the Devil?

The word scheme in Greek is “methodia,” from which we get the English word method. It has the idea of craftiness, cunning, and deception. He is even called the father of lies. Everything he says is designed to discourage, intimidate, and bring us to despair. His only weapons are lies. I remember back in 2003 (I think it was) when “Operation Iraqi Freedom” was initiated. Our goal was to unseat Saddam Hussein. I remember the propaganda coming out of Iraq following the first thrust of American forces into the Iraqi heartland. The Iraqi representative reported on television that the American forces had been repelled and were forced back on every front. The next image was of U. S. Marines relaxing inside of President Hussein’s palaces in Baghdad. What’s wrong with this picture? I don’t think there has ever been a briefer war in U. S. History. Even the more elite forces of Saddam’s Royal Guard cut and ran from the advancing superiority of the U.S. Forces.

In his study on this passage, Rasnake compares “Operation Iraqi Freedom” with our battle against the spiritual forces of evil. He writes, “When one is doing battle with a superior adversary, the underdog may resort to lies and deceit to try and appear more formidable than he really is, as the Iraqi Information Minister displayed. In an even greater sense, the army of God is so far superior to Satan and his minions that Satan must lie and deceive to try to intimidate and incite fear in the children of God. But we have the promise of the apostle John in 1 John 4:4 that says, “Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” While it is true that a sissy demon could whip any of us on any day, Satan himself is no match for the One who lives in us. All we need to do for victory in spiritual war is to ‘stand firm’ in Christ.

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