Morning Fuel Devotional (Page 3)
Morning Fuel – Exodus 20:4-5 – God Cannot Be Contained
In Exodus 20:4-5, God continues the Ten Commandments by giving commandment two. He says, “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them…” So in commandment 1, God says that we should worship only him. That we should not put anything or anyone else to his level. No one else deserves our worship!…
Morning Fuel – Exodus 20:3 – No Other Gods
God says in Exodus 20:3, “You shall have no other gods before me.” This is the first of the 10 Ten Commandments. The word “gods” refers to exactly that: gods. Supreme beings. God is referring to not putting anyone or anything up to the level of himself. This was a major temptation for the Israelites, and later on we see it play out in Judges (among other places). Most of the time, the Israelites would not flat-out reject God and…
Morning Fuel – Exodus 20:2 – I Am The God
In Exodus 20:2, God says, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” These words are his introduction to the 10 Commandments. Notice it’s a SHORT introduction. Before he lays out the ten most important commandments for the Israelites, he simply says, “Hey, I am the Lord.” The English word that we translate into “Lord” is the Hebrew word Yahweh. Yahweh is God’s “personal” or “proper” name. Just like my…
Morning Fuel – 2 Corinthians 4:16 – Aging Bodies, Renewing Spirits
I am now in 40s and am slowly seeing the effects of aging in my life. It is harder to lose weight. Health problems are creeping in. When I get up in the morning, I am more sore than I used to be. Anyone who is older than about 20 can see this in their life as well. Our bodies just do not hold up! I don’t want to depress you today. But that is the reality. Thankfully, that is…
Morning Fuel – 2 Corinthians 3:12 – Boldness and Hope
In a previous devotional I talked about how being filled with the Spirit can make us bold in speaking about Jesus. Today I want to talk about boldness again, but this time as it relates to approaching God. In 2 Corinthians 3:12, Paul writes, “Since we have such a hope, we are very bold…” There are two things to see here. When Paul says “hope,” he is referring to what Jesus Christ did on the cross. Once Jesus died and…
Morning Fuel – Acts 4:8 – Boldness in Evangelism
Sometimes people tell me, “I wish I could be bolder in sharing about Jesus!” Heck, I know I have felt that in my own life! Now when it comes to witnessing, there is an element of courage. When you are new at it, you sometimes just have to “get over that first hump” and do it before it starts to get easier. So there is a part of it where you just need to work at it and it will…
Morning Fuel – Ecclesiastes 4:1 – Leaders Can’t Save Us
I read an interesting study that looked at judges and their rulings based on what they ate! In 2010, researchers tracked 8 judges in 1,100 parole-board hearings over 10 months. The judges averaged 22 years of experience. Their findings? “The chances of a prisoner being granted parole depended on the time of day that the judge heard the case.” Prisoners’ odds for getting their parole granted were highest in the morning right after breakfast. About 65% were granted a parole…
Morning Fuel – Ecclesiastes 3:16-17 – The Problem of Injustice
We would all agree that this world can be horribly unfair. People die and suffer. Evil seems to rule. Just a quick look at the news shows us that all around the world there are unjust things happening. Solomon made that same observation thousands of years ago. In Ecclesiastes 3:16, he said, “Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness.” Solomon was…
Morning Fuel – Ecclesiastes 4:4 – One Danger of Community
In Ecclesiastes 4, Solomon has been talking about the benefits of community. How two are stronger than one. How we can help each other. Sadly, we all know that there are some difficulties to community as well. Solomon gives one of those in v. 4. He writes, “Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man’s envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.” So Solomon is pointing out…
Morning Fuel – Ecclesiastes 4:7-8 – Independence
Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 4:7-8: 7 Again, I saw vanity under the sun: 8 one person who has no other, either son or brother, yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks, “For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure?” This also is vanity and an unhappy business. In these verses Solomon talks about someone who has no one. The person has worked hard…