Who I Am In Christ Devotionals

Now the birth of Jesus Christ happened this way. While his mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph, her husband to be, was a righteous man, and because he did not want to disgrace her, he intended to divorce her privately. When he had contemplated this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife because the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you will name him Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:19-21 Who am I in Christ? I am a saved man. Saved. Not dead anymore. Saved. Not just a little bit. 100% saved. It’s like when Harvey, our cat, brought a live rabbit into our house one Sunday evening. We took the rabbit out of Harvey’s mouth and set him free behind our house. The rabbit was saved.  There are differences though, right? It was goo

You prepare a feast before me in plain sight of my enemies. You refresh my head with oil; my cup is completely full. Surely your goodness and faithfulness will pursue me all my days, and I will live in the Lord’s house for the rest of my life.  Psalms‬ ‭23:5‭-‬6‬ ‭(NET‬‬) https://bible.com/bible/107/psa.23.5.NET My mom teaching me to memorize Psalm 23 is one of my earliest and sweetest memories. It’s been over a half century ago, but I think I learned it about when I first started school or just before. At that age, memorizing feels like so much fun. I love this image of sitting down to a feast that the Lord has prepared. The idea that He cares for me in such a special way is so joyful and yet so humbling. Though memorizing the chapter was a good and potent act for me, I wish I could say that I carried it with me at all times. There have been many, many times in my life, even long stretches of time in which I have all but forgotten how special I am to Jesus. And even now after mu

Click to play the audio .. “I was 40 years old when Moses the Lord’s servant sent me from Kadesh-barnea to scout the land, and I brought back an honest report.” “As you see, the Lord has kept me alive these forty-five years as he promised, since the Lord spoke this word to Moses while Israel was journeying in the wilderness. Here I am today, eighty-five years old. I am still as strong today as I was the day Moses sent me out. My strength for battle and for daily tasks is now as it was then. Joshua 14:7, 10-11 (CSB) Things don’t always go right. In fact, sometimes they go off the rails. Even when we do it right. (But they never go off God’s rails.) Think about Caleb. Caleb was one of the spies that Moses sent to the land of Canaan. He explored the promised land with the other spies, and he was excited about what God was doing for them. He came back with a good report. Why? Because he trusted what God would do. But most of his fellow spies came back with a bad report. Th