God's Four-Handed Provision #RTTBROS #Nightlight

God's Four-Handed Provision #RTTBROS #Nightlight

"And my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." — Philippians 4:19

You know, I've been thinking about something that keeps coming up when I talk with folks who are worried about their finances, their future, their needs. We live in uncertain times, and it's easy to look at our bank accounts or our circumstances and wonder if God's really going to come through. But here's what I've learned, and I'm too soon old and too late smart on this one: God has always been in the providing business, and He uses four different hands to meet our needs.

Man's Hand 

Let me take you back to the book of Exodus for a minute. The children of Israel are about to leave Egypt after 400 years of slavery. Now, you'd think they'd be leaving with nothing but the clothes on their backs, right? But look what happens. God moves the hearts of the Egyptians, and they give the Israelites gold, silver, and clothing. The Bible says they "spoiled the Egyptians" (Exodus 12:36). That's provision through man's hand. Later, Nehemiah needed resources to rebuild Jerusalem's walls, and God moved the heart of King Cyrus to provide everything he needed. Sometimes God provides through the generosity of others, even when we least expect it.

God's Hand

But then there are times when man's hand isn't enough, when no human source can meet the need. That's when God provides directly from His hand. Think about those same Israelites wandering in the wilderness. Every morning, manna covered the ground like dew. Water flowed from a rock. God Himself provided supernaturally what no human could give. Now, we don't live on miracles day to day, but we need to remember they happen in the lives of believers when we need them most.

Your Hand

Then comes the third way, and this is where most of us live most of the time. God provides by your hands. When the Israelites finally crossed into the Promised Land, the manna stopped. They had to plant crops, tend flocks, work the land. The psalmist writes, "thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee" (Psalm 128:2). God blesses the work of our hands. He doesn't call us to sit around waiting for miracles when He's given us the ability to work.

Your Enemy's Hand

But here's the one that really gets me, the fourth way God provides that we almost never think about. God provides by our enemies' hands. When Caleb was looking at the giants in the land, do you remember what he said? Those giants would be "bread for us" (Numbers 14:9). What looked like an obstacle was actually provision. Your greatest challenge might just be God's way of bringing you your greatest blessing.

So when you're worried about how God's going to provide, remember He's got four hands working on your behalf. Sometimes it's through people's generosity. Sometimes it's a flat-out miracle. Sometimes it's through honest work. And sometimes, that very thing you think is going to destroy you is actually going to feed you.

Let's pray: Father, help us trust that You know how to provide for Your children. Whether it's through man's hand, Your hand, our hands, or even through our enemies, we know You will supply all our needs. Give us eyes to see Your provision in every circumstance. In Jesus' name, Amen.

#Faith #GodsProvision #Trust #ChristianLiving #DailyDevotion #BiblicalWisdom #SpiritualGrowth #RTTBROS #Nightlight

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At The Cross #RTTBROS #Nightlight

At the Cross: The Amazing Exchange

"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." — Romans 5:8

You know, there's a hymn that's been sung in churches for over a hundred and fifty years now, and every time I hear it, I find myself stopped in my tracks by one particular verse. The hymn is "At the Cross," written by Isaac Watts way back in 1707, and the verse goes like this: "Was it for crimes that I have done, He groaned upon the tree? Amazing pity, grace unknown, and love beyond degree!"

When Isaac Watts wrote those words, he was wrestling with a question that should stop all of us dead in our tracks: Why would Jesus do that for me?

Think about it. The Creator of the universe, hanging on a cross. And for what? For crimes that I have done. My sins "Big" and "Small" (no such thing as small really) the lies I've told. The times I've chosen my way over His.

I'm too soon old and too late smart on this, but one thing I've learned is that we have a tendency to minimize our own sin while we maximize everyone else's. But when we look at that cross, we have to face the truth: it took the death of God's own Son to pay for those "slip-ups."

But here's where it gets really amazing. That verse doesn't stop at the crime. It goes on: "Amazing pity, grace unknown, and love beyond degree!" The cross isn't just about what we've done, it's about what He's done for us.

When Jesus hung on that cross, He wasn't dying for some abstract concept. He was thinking about you. About me. And He didn't do it because we deserved it. He did it because that's who He is.

The Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:21, "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." That's the amazing exchange. He took our sin and gave us His righteousness.

I remember talking to a man once who told me he just couldn't accept that God would forgive him. He'd made too many mistakes. And I asked him, "Do you think your sin is bigger than the cross?"

The cross says that no matter what crimes you and I have done, His grace is enough. His love is beyond degree. It's a love that looked at us in all our mess and said, "I'll die for that one."

History is just HIS story, and the cross is the central chapter. It's where your sin and His grace came face to face, and grace won.

Let's pray: Father, we stand amazed at the cross. Thank You that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Help us never to take for granted the price that was paid. In Jesus' name, Amen.

#Faith #TheCross #Grace #ChristianLiving #DailyDevotion #HymnHistory #BiblicalWisdom #SpiritualGrowth #RTTBROS #Nightlight

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The Herring Barrel Valentine #RTTBROS #Nightlight

The Herring Barrel Valentine #RTTBROS #Nightlight

"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath punishment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love." — 1 John 4:18

You know, I've always been fascinated by love stories, especially the ones that seem absolutely impossible. And let me tell you, the love story of Martin Luther and Katie von Bora is one for the ages.

Picture this: it's 1523, and Katie is a nun trapped in a convent. She's read Luther's writings about the freedom we have in Christ, and she's desperate to escape. So Martin Luther, this bold reformer who's already been excommunicated and declared an outlaw, arranges for her and eleven other nuns to be smuggled out in empty herring barrels. Can you imagine that? The smell alone would have been something fierce.

Now, Luther believed these women deserved a chance at marriage and family, so he set about playing matchmaker. One by one, he found husbands for them all, except Katie. She was a bit particular, you see. She told Luther's friend that she would only marry two men, Luther himself or his friend. Well, that put Luther in quite a position.

Here's the thing though, Luther had convinced himself he would never marry. He was living under a death sentence from the Pope. Every day could have been his last. He figured, why make a woman a widow? But Katie saw something different. She saw a man worth the risk.

In June of 1525, Martin Luther, age 41, married Katharina von Bora, age 26. And you know what? It turned out to be one of the most beautiful marriages in Christian history. Luther, who once said he would never marry, wrote to a friend, "I would not exchange Katie for France or for Venice." He called her "my lord Katie" and said she made him rich beyond measure.

Katie wasn't just a wife, she was a partner. She ran their home, which became a hub for students and reformers. She managed their finances, she brewed beer, she ran a farm, and she gave Luther six children. More than that, she gave him a place of peace in the midst of the storm.

You see, love has a way of casting out fear. Luther was afraid of making Katie a widow, but love said the risk was worth it. Katie was afraid of leaving everything she knew, but love said freedom was worth it.

And here's what I love most about their story: it wasn't perfect. They argued, they struggled, they faced poverty and danger together. But Luther said his marriage taught him more about God's love than all his theology books combined.

History is just HIS story, and God writes the most beautiful love stories in the most unexpected places. Sometimes love means climbing into a herring barrel and trusting God with the outcome. Sometimes it means marrying someone when the whole world says it's foolish.

Because perfect love, the kind that comes from God, casts out fear. It makes impossible things possible. It turns a monk and a nun into a marriage that would inspire millions for centuries to come.

#Faith #Love #ChristianLiving #DailyDevotion #ChurchHistory #TrustGod #BiblicalWisdom #RTTBROS #Nightlight

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Silence is Golden #RTTBROS #Nightlight

Silence is Golden #RTTBROS #Nightlight  

"He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbour: but a man of understanding holdeth his peace."

 Proverbs 11:12 (KJV)

There is a quiet strength in knowing when to speak and when to simply be still. Solomon draws a sharp contrast here, the fool rushes to tear down his neighbor with words, but the man of understanding holds his peace. That word holdeth carries weight; it isn't passive silence born of indifference, it is a deliberate, disciplined choice. How often do we mistake the urge to speak our mind for wisdom, when the truly wise response is a closed mouth and a steady heart? The world rewards the loudest voice in the room, but God honors the one who has learned that not every thought needs an audience, not every offense demands a response, and not every conflict is ours to win. Friend, the next time your patience is tested and your tongue is ready to fire, pause. That pause may be the most powerful thing you do all day. A man of understanding holds his peace, because he knows that God's justice is far more reliable than his own reaction.

This Is the Day #RTTBROS #Nightlight

This Is the Day #RTTBROS #Nightlight

"This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." — Psalm 118:24

You know, I was humming a little song this morning that I first learned in children's church, probably six decades ago. Maybe you know it too. "This is the day, this is the day, that the Lord hath made, that the Lord hath made. We will rejoice, we will rejoice, and be glad in it..." I caught myself singing it almost before I was fully awake, and I thought, now isn't that something. Here I am, all these years later, and that little song is still doing its work on my soul.

That simple round was written by Les Garrett, a New Zealand worship leader, back in 1967. He wasn't writing for Carnegie Hall or a great cathedral choir. He was writing something children could sing, something simple enough to wrap a young heart around. And yet that little melody has been circling the globe ever since, showing up in hymnals and children's programs and, apparently, in the early mornings of old preachers who need to be reminded of something important.

Because here's what Psalm 118:24 is actually doing. It isn't a gentle suggestion. It's a declaration. "This is the day which the LORD hath made." Not tomorrow, not the day things get easier, not the day the bills get paid or the diagnosis comes back clean. This day. The one you woke up to this morning, with all its uncertainty and its ordinary Tuesday-ness. God made this day on purpose, and He handed it to you.

The Psalm was written in a context of real deliverance. The writer had been through the fire, through rejection, through the kind of circumstances where it would have been very easy to greet the morning with dread instead of praise. And yet, right in the middle of all of that, he plants a flag and says, "We will rejoice and be glad in it." That "we will" is a choice, not a feeling.

I'm too soon old and too late smart on this one, but I've learned that some of the most powerful spiritual habits are the ones we learned when we were small. That little round I learned in children's church wasn't just a song. It was a posture of the heart being built into me before I even knew I needed it.

So let me ask you this morning, what are you doing with the day God handed you today? It is His gift. It won't come around again. We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Let's pray. Lord, thank You for this day, this specific, unrepeatable day that You made and gave to us. Help us not to sleepwalk through it or spend it dreading tomorrow. Teach us to receive it as the gift it is, and to rejoice, genuinely rejoice, in it. In Jesus' name, Amen.

#ThisIsTheDay #Psalm118 #MorningDevotion #ChristianLiving #RTTBROS #Nightlight

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To Speak or Not to Speak #NK #NormanKissinger #RTTBROS #Nightlight

To Speak or Not to Speak #NK #NormanKissinger #RTTBROS #Nightlight

"Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction. Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy." — Proverbs 31:8-9

You know, I've been wrestling with something lately, and I bet some of you have too. It's this question that keeps coming up in my mind: when do we speak up, and when do we stay silent? In this age of the internet where you can post that you love apples and somebody's going to insult you for it, that's become a real dilemma for followers of Christ. There's so much noise out there, so many voices, and the stakes feel higher than they've ever been because thousands of people can see what we say in an instant.

For years, I pretty much stayed quiet online except for official ministry work, wishing people happy birthday, or thanking folks from my past. I'd see posts that were way off biblically, things that grieved my spirit, but I'd just assume somebody else would address it. I'd think to myself, "It's a slippery slope. You can hurt the kingdom by saying the wrong thing or saying the right thing the wrong way." And that's true, it is a slippery slope. But lately, the Holy Spirit's been convicting me that silence has its own cost.

Here's what I've been learning, and I'm too soon old and too late smart on this one: when we stay silent in the face of error, especially doctrinal error that's being spread by people who claim Christ, we're not just being careful, we're letting people slip into beliefs that aren't even close to biblical. Weak Christians, and let's be honest, even mature Christians sometimes, will hear stuff and believe it without questioning whether it lines up with what God actually says in His Word.

The problem isn't that Christians disagree on things, there's always been healthy debate about secondary issues. Arminian or Calvinist, charismatic gifts or not, end times views, all of that, good godly people can land in different places and still love Jesus and hold to the fundamentals. But when somebody starts building entire theologies on conjecture, making heroes out of people the Scripture doesn't even clearly vindicate, or worse, when they start chipping away at the virgin birth, the inerrancy of Scripture, the deity of Christ, the necessity of holy living, that's when we've got to find our voice.

I think about the Apostle Paul. That man didn't stay quiet when error crept into the church. He wrote whole letters confronting false teaching. He stood up to Peter's face when Peter was being a hypocrite in Galatians. He warned Timothy, "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine" (2 Timothy 4:2). Paul understood that truth doesn't defend itself, it needs voices willing to speak it clearly and boldly.

But here's the balance, and this is where we need the Holy Spirit's wisdom. Jesus himself stayed silent sometimes. He didn't answer every accusation, didn't engage every critic. There were moments when silence was the most powerful thing He could do. So we've got to be Spirit-led in this. We can't just respond to everything, we'd consume ourselves with arguing on the internet and accomplish nothing for the kingdom. But we also can't be so silent that error goes unchallenged and people drift into heresy.

What I'm finding is that we've lost something critical in our culture, we've lost the ability to think critically. People don't question what they read anymore. They see a post, it sounds good, it feels right, and they accept it without ever opening their Bibles to see if it's actually true. That's dangerous ground, because that's exactly how you slip from minor doctrinal error into full-blown heresy, one unchallenged assumption at a time.

So I've decided I'm going to speak up a little more. Not to every fool on the internet who just wants to argue, but when I see something that needs a biblical response, when I see teaching that could lead people astray, I'm planning to write something solid, something thought out, something that points people back to what Scripture actually says. Not because I'm right about everything, I'm certainly not, but because the gospel needs to stay clear and the foundations need to stay solid.

The question isn't really whether we should speak, it's when and how. When do we let something go because engaging would do no good? When do we speak up because silence would be being ashamed of Christ? These have always been questions for believers, but now with the internet, the whole world is watching. We need to be lighthouses in the ocean of this world, pointing people to solid ground. We need to stand on the inerrancy of Scripture and the traditional, conservative teaching of God's Word, and we need to communicate it effectively.

Let me ask you today: is the Holy Spirit nudging you to speak up about something? Or is He telling you to be silent and pray? Either way, let's not be people who just drift along accepting everything we hear. Let's be thinkers. Let's open our Bibles. Let's stand for truth with grace and boldness, knowing that history is just HIS story, and we're honored to be a part of it.

Let's pray: Father, give us wisdom to know when to speak and when to be silent. Help us stand for truth without being unloving, and help us love people without compromising Your Word. Make us bold when we need to be bold, and humble when we need to be humble. In Jesus' name, Amen.

#Faith #Truth #ChristianLiving #DailyDevotion #StandForTruth #BiblicalWisdom #SpiritualGrowth #RTTBROS #Nightlight

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The Great Exchange #RTTBROS #Nightlight

The Great Exchange #RTTBROS #Nightlight

"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." — 2 Corinthians 5:21

You know, there's a quote from Martin Luther that's been rattling around in my head lately. He said, "Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness, I am your sin. You took on you what was mine; yet set on me what was yours. You became what you were not, that I might become what I was not."

Now, preachers never say anything short, but Luther managed to capture the entire Gospel in one beautiful sentence. This is what theologians call "The Great Exchange," and friend, if you can wrap your heart around this truth, it'll change everything.

Here's what happened at the cross. Jesus, who never sinned, not even once, took on all of my sin, all of your sin, every dark thought, every harsh word, every broken promise, every failure. He became what He was not so that we could become what we were not. Think about that for a minute. The sinless Son of God became sin itself so that sinful people like you and me could become righteous before a holy God.

It's like the ultimate trade, except it was completely one-sided. I brought nothing to the table but my mess, my brokenness, my rebellion. And Jesus said, "I'll take that. And here, take my righteousness, my holiness, my perfect record before the Father."

Paul puts it this way in Galatians 2:20: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."

See, this isn't just theological talk. This is the exchanged life. When you come to Christ, you give Him your sin and He gives you His righteousness and His life. You died with Him on that cross, but you also rose with Him. Now Christ lives in you, and the life you're living isn't really yours anymore. It's His life, lived through you, by faith.

I'm too soon old and too late smart to have figured this out on my own. But here's what I know now: I don't have to work up righteousness. I don't have to earn God's approval. Jesus already did that. He took my place on the cross, and when God looks at me, He sees Jesus' righteousness, not my failures.

That's the cornerstone of the Gospel, friend. That's the foundation everything else is built on. Jesus became what He was not, that you and I might become what we were not. He became sin so we could become righteous. He died so we could live.

History is just HIS story, and this is the greatest exchange in all of history. Jesus took our sin and gave us His righteousness. That's the Gospel in a nutshell.

Let's pray: Father, thank You for the great exchange. Thank You that Jesus took our sin upon Himself so that we could receive His righteousness. Help us live in the freedom and joy of this truth every single day. In Jesus' name, Amen.

#Faith #Gospel #Salvation #TheGreatExchange #ChristianLiving #DailyDevotion #BiblicalTruth #SpiritualGrowth #RTTBROS #Nightlight

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