Gospel.com Blog

Today’s devotional comes from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. In it, he explores the true source of our atonement: Jesus’ death:

Beware of the pleasant view of the fatherhood of God: God is so kind and loving that of course He will forgive us. That thought, based solely on emotion, cannot be found anywhere in the New Testament. The only basis on which God can forgive us is the tremendous tragedy of the Cross of Christ. To base our forgiveness on any other ground is unconscious blasphemy. The only ground on which God can forgive our sin and reinstate us to His favor is through the Cross of Christ. There is no other way! Forgiveness, which is so easy for us to accept, cost the agony at Calvary. We should never take the forgiveness of sin, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and our sanctification in simple faith, and then forget the enormous cost to God that made all of this ours.

Forgiveness is the divine miracle of grace. The cost to God was the Cross of Christ. To forgive sin, while remaining a holy God, this price had to be paid. Never accept a view of the fatherhood of God if it blots out the atonement. The revealed truth of God is that without the atonement He cannot forgive— He would contradict His nature if He did. The only way we can be forgiven is by being brought back to God through the atonement of the Cross. God’s forgiveness is possible only in the supernatural realm.

Compared with the miracle of the forgiveness of sin, the experience of sanctification is small. Sanctification is simply the wonderful expression or evidence of the forgiveness of sins in a human life. But the thing that awakens the deepest fountain of gratitude in a human being is that God has forgiven his sin. Paul never got away from this. Once you realize all that it cost God to forgive you, you will be held as in a vise, constrained by the love of God.

Do you take time to regularly reflect on what the death of Jesus made possible for you?

This mornings devotional comes from Charles Spurgeon’s classic devotional Morning and Evening. Spurgeon writes about Job’s burning desire to find God in the midst of his pain. It consumed his very being:

Finding God by Charles Haddon Spurgeon
“O that I knew where I might find Him!”

–Job 23:3

In Job’s uttermost extremity he cried after the Lord. The longing desire of an afflicted child of God is once more to see his Father’s face. His first prayer is not “O that I might be healed of the disease which now festers in every part of my body!” nor even “O that I might see my children restored from the jaws of the grave, and my property once more brought from the hand of the spoiler!” but the first and uppermost cry is, “O that I knew where I might find HIM, who is my God! that I might come even to His seat!” God’s children run home when the storm comes on. It is the heaven-born instinct of a gracious soul to seek shelter from all ills beneath the wings of Jehovah. “He that hath made his refuge God,” might serve as the title of a true believer. A hypocrite, when afflicted by God, resents the infliction, and, like a slave, would run from the Master who has scourged him; but not so the true heir of heaven, he kisses the hand which smote him, and seeks shelter from the rod in the bosom of the God who frowned upon him.

Job’s desire to commune with God was intensified by the failure of all other sources of consolation. The patriarch turned away from his sorry friends, and looked up to the celestial throne, just as a traveller turns from his empty skin bottle, and betakes himself with all speed to the well. He bids farewell to earth-born hopes, and cries, “O that I knew where I might find my God!” Nothing teaches us so much the preciousness of the Creator, as when we learn the emptiness of all besides. Turning away with bitter scorn from earth’s hives, where we find no honey, but many sharp stings, we rejoice in Him whose faithful word is sweeter than honey or the honeycomb. In every trouble we should first seek to realize God’s presence with us. Only let us enjoy His smile, and we can bear our daily cross with a willing heart for His dear sake.
This is a public domain version of Morning and Evening.

Have you ever been in an inconsolable place in which you had nothing but God? How did it feel?

Have you ever wished the Christian life were easier? Life’s everyday challenges don’t evaporate the minute we profess faith in Christ, and it’s easy to grow frustrated when difficult questions or repeated temptations continue to vex us. This devotional from Mrs. Charles Cowman’s Streams in the Desert encourages Christians to resist the urge to become offended or upset when things don’t work out quite like we want:

It is sometimes very difficult not to be offended in Jesus Christ. The offenses may be circumstantial. I find myself in a prison-house–a narrow sphere, a sick chamber, an unpopular position–when I had hoped for wide opportunities. Yes, but He knows what is best for me. My environment is of His determining. He means it to intensify my faith, to draw me into nearer communion with Himself, to ripen my power. In the dungeon my soul should prosper.

The offense may be mental. I am haunted by perplexities, questions, which I cannot solve. I had hoped that, when I gave myself to Him, my sky would always be clear; but often it is overspread by mist and cloud. Yet let me believe that, if difficulties remain, it is that I may learn to trust Him all the more implicitly–to trust and not be afraid. Yes, and by my intellectual conflicts, I am trained to be a tutor to other storm-driven men.

The offense may be spiritual. I had fancied that within His fold I should never feel the biting winds of temptation; but it is best as it is. His grace is magnified. My own character is matured. His Heaven is sweeter at the close of the day. There I shall look back on the turnings and trials of the way, and shall sing the praises of my Guide. So, let come what will come, His will is welcome; and I shall refuse to be offended in my loving Lord.

Read the complete devotional at Streams in the Desert.

When you find yourself frustrated and offended at life’s circumstances, a bit of spiritual perspective can put it all in the proper context.

Not a season goes by that we don’t hear of some public figure’s fall from grace. A famous pastor is exposed as a hypocrite. A politician’s career is engulfed by scandal. We watch, and we wonder at the many ways in which sin brings down the high and mighty.

The temptations that periodically topple the rich and famous might have little hold on us; most of us aren’t faced with the temptation (or ability) to commit large-scale financial fraud or to live secret lives of decadence and debauchery. But if we think we’re immune to sin and its consequences, we are greatly mistaken, as Charles Spurgeon reminds us in this devotional message from his classic Morning and Evening:

Your occupation may be as humble as log splitting, and yet the devil can tempt you in it. You may be a domestic servant, a farm labourer, or a mechanic, and you may be greatly screened from temptations to the grosser vices, and yet some secret sin may do you damage. Those who dwell at home, and mingle not with the rough world, may yet be endangered by their very seclusion. Nowhere is he safe who thinks himself so.

Pride may enter a poor man’s heart; avarice may reign in a cottager’s bosom; uncleanness may venture into the quietest home; and anger, and envy, and malice may insinuate themselves into the most rural abode. Even in speaking a few words to a servant we may sin; a little purchase at a shop may be the first link in a chain of temptations; the mere looking out of a window may be the beginning of evil. O Lord, how exposed we are! How shall we be secured! To keep ourselves is work too hard for us: only Thou Thyself art able to preserve us in such a world of evils. Spread Thy wings over us, and we, like little chickens, will cower down beneath Thee, and feel ourselves safe!

Read the complete devotional at Back to the Bible.

It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, famous or obscure. We’re all equally in need of Jesus Christ, and we are all threatened by sin and temptation if we don’t rely on his grace.

Should Christians really be self-sufficient? In today’s devotional from Our Daily Bread, Joe Stowell challenges us with the message that being a Christian means relying on Christ, not on ourselves:

The city of Laodicea had a water problem. One nearby town had fabulous hot springs and another had cold, clear water. Laodicea, however, was stuck with tepid, mineral-laden water that tasted like sulphur. Not hot. Not cold. Just gross.

Given those facts, the words of Jesus to the Laodicean believers in Revelation 3 must have stung. Jesus rebuked them for being “neither cold nor hot” (v.15). And when He thought of them, He felt like vomiting (v.16)—like the effect of their drinking water.

What was their problem? It was the sin of self-sufficiency. The Laodiceans had become so affluent that they had forgotten how much they needed Jesus (v.17).

When we say we have everything we need, but Jesus isn’t at the top of the list, He is deeply offended. Self-sufficiency distracts us from pursuing the things we really need that only He can give. If you’d rather have cash than character, if your credit cards are maximized and your righteousness is minimized, if you’ve become smart but aren’t wise, then you’ve been shopping in all the wrong places. Jesus offers commodities that are far better (v.18).

He’s knocking at your heart’s door (v.20). Let Him in. He will give you all you really need! — Joe Stowell

We must be careful to avoid
All self-sufficiency;
If sinful pride gets in the way,
God’s hand we will not see. —Sper

We always have enough when God is our supply

How do you seek to put Christ first in your life?

Does God really still speak to us today in the twentieth century? That’s the question addressed by today’s devotional, from Woodrow Kroll’s Early in the Morning devotional series. Kroll describes what it must have been like to hear Jesus’ teaching in person—and explains why we can hear his voice just as clearly today:

Today, in the twentieth century, Jesus does not speak to us and teach us as He did early in the morning in the temple, but He still speaks to us through His Word, God’s Word the Holy Bible. We have the benefit of hearing the very same teaching that these heard who came at the dawning of the day to the temple. We can sit at the feet of Jesus today by reading His Word.

H. A. Ironside told of a godly man named Andrew Frazer, who had come to southern California to recover from a serious illness. Though this Irishman was quite weak, he opened his worn Bible and began expounding the truths of God’s Word in a way that Ironside had never heard before. So moved by Frazer’s words was Ironside, that his curiosity drove him to ask, “Where did you learn these things? Did you learn them in some college or seminary?” The sickly man said, “My dear young man, I learned these things on my knees on the mud floor of a little sod cottage in the north of Ireland. There, with my open Bible before me, I used to kneel for hours at a time and ask the Spirit of God to reveal Christ to my soul and to open the Word to my heart. He taught me more on my knees on that mud floor than I ever could have learned in all the seminaries or colleges in the world.”

To spend time in the Word of God yields a much richer understanding of the deep things of theology than to spend time in a classroom. For the person denied a formal education in Bible and theology there is no shame if we spend time at the feet of Jesus. From early in the morning, throughout the day, and into the evening hours the great scholars of the Word become so because of time spent in God’s Book and on their knees. Each of us has the same opportunity to do that. Let’s take that opportunity today.

Read the full devotional at Back to the Bible.

What’s the state of your Bible study and reading today? Do you hear Jesus’ voice of teaching and encouragement when you read the Bible? Do you need to spend more time learning at Jesus’ feet by reading God’s Word?

Today’s devotional comes from A Slice of Infinity, a daily series by noted Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias. Drawing on an unusual experience from a visit to a communist country, Ravi shows that powerful witnessing can take place when we simply model for others what prayer and worship look like:

A few years ago, two or three of my colleagues and I were in a country dominated for decades by Marxism. Before we began our meetings, we were invited to a dinner hosted by some common friends, all of whom were skeptics and, for all practical purposes, atheists. The evening was full of questions, posed principally by a notable theoretical physicist in the country. There were also others who represented different elements of power within that society. As the night wore on, we got the feeling that the questions had gone on long enough and that we were possibly going in circles.

I asked if we could have a word of prayer with them, for them, and for the country before we bade them good-bye. There was a silence of consternation, an obvious hesitancy, and then one said, “Of course.” We did just that—we prayed. In this large dining room of historic import to them, with all the memories of secular power plastered within those walls, the prayer brought a sobering silence that we were all in the presence of someone greater than us. When we finished, every eye was moist and nothing was said. They hugged us and thanked us, with emotion written all over their faces. The next day when we met them, one of them said to me, “We did not go back to our rooms last night till it was early morning. In fact, I stayed in my hotel lobby most of the night talking further. Then I went back to my room and gave my life to Jesus Christ.”

I firmly believe that it was the prayer that gave them a hint of the taste of what worship is all about. Their hearts had never experienced it.

Over the years I have discovered that praying with people can sometimes do more for them than preaching to them. Prayer draws the heart away from one’s own dependence to leaning on the sovereign God. The burden is often lifted instantly. Prayer is only one aspect of worship, but one that is greatly neglected in the face of people who would be shocked to hear what prayer sounds like when the one praying knows how to touch the heart of God. To a person in need, pat answers don’t change the mind; prayer does.

Read the complete devotional at Ravi Zacharias’ website.

Pointing people to God doesn’t always mean handing out tracts, preaching to them, or outwitting them in an apologetics debate—sometimes it’s as simple as showing them what worship means in your own life.

This morning’s devotional, from Lifetime Guarantee Ministries, challenges us to think about obedience by looking at the story of Naaman. How obedient are you? And exactly what role does obedience play in your relationship with Jesus Christ?

Do you sometimes wonder about your level of obedience? You approach the topic sincerely and very logically: “God loves me unconditionally. I believe that with all my heart. I also believe that there isn’t anything I can do to make Him love me more or anything that I can do to make Him love me less. What part does my obedience play in His plan for my life when I believe in His unconditional love for me?” [...]

[For Naaman,] searching the prophet out and telling him the problem was not enough. Hearing the prophet’s instructions was painful—it hurt his pride to think of doing something so demeaning. Naaman did not believe, but he was desperate. He did not understand the prophet’s remedy, but he was hurting. He merely humbled himself and obeyed, that’s all. He obeyed and that obedience brought healing. His life was rerouted—changed forever!

And you and me? We must allow God to be our God—we must submit to Him before we can submit to His plan for our life, before we can be all that He has planned for us to be. Obedience paves the way for His way—the only way. His way may be humiliating, embarrassing, something you would never dream of doing, something that seems absolutely ridiculous to you. But I have the courage to say to you, “Oh, please! You are here. Why not at least try what the Lord has told you to do?”

Read the complete devotional at Lifetime Guarantee Ministries.

Can you relate to Naaman? Have you ever chosen to obey, even if you weren’t sure you believed? If we’re saved by grace alone, where does obedience fit in?

Today’s devotional is from Ron Hutchcraft Ministries’ daily A Word With You series. In it, Ron challenges us—even those of us who have grown up with and lived in Christian communities for years—to rethink the simple message of the Gospel:

From the first sin in the Garden of Eden to the lie you told or the person you hurt today, God has minced no words telling us the penalty, “You will surely die” (Genesis 2:17). And the devil’s lie to Adam and Eve went like this: “You will not surely die” (Genesis 3:4). He’s been trying to get people to believe that lie ever since. He wants you to think that somehow you can escape the death penalty for your sin when God said that penalty is irrevocable.

But in His love, He set in motion a way that the death penalty you and I deserve (the Bible calls that hell) could be paid without us being away from Him forever. A blood sacrifice – someone with no sin of His own to pay for, dying in your place. And there’s only one someone who meets that qualification. That is the Son of God. He came, as the Bible says, “to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebrews 9:26). Is it any wonder God says then, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22).

You can’t get rid of your sin by earning it, by doing good things. You can’t inherit God’s forgiveness from a Christian family or pick it up by osmosis from just being around Christian things your whole life. Your only hope of getting clean, of getting to heaven, is the cleansing power of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Not Christianity. Jesus. The question is, have you ever thrown yourself on His mercy and said, “Jesus, only by the blood You shed for me can I be clean before God. Please, Lord, this day, carry away the garbage of my life in Your precious blood.” And He will do it if you ask.

And why wouldn’t you? Why would you risk one more day carrying in your soul the guilt of your sin and its awful death penalty? Why, when Jesus carried it for you on the cross so you would never have to carry it again! If you’re ready to be forgiven, if you’re ready to be clean through what Jesus has done for you, tell Him that today, “Jesus, I’m Yours.”

Read the full devotional at Ron Hutchcraft Ministries. If you like Ron’s message and style, there’s a lot of great content to browse through at his site, including the A Word With You archives, many articles about difficult life issues, and more.

One of the most popular resources in the Gospel.com community has always been its collection of devotionals.

The list of devotionals published by community members includes Our Daily Bread, Meet with God, the Lifetime Guarantee Daily Devotional, and many, many others. Starting today, we’re going to post an excerpt from one of these many different devotionals on the blog each morning.

Today’s devotional is from Daily Encounter, a weekday devotional written by Richard Innes of ACTS International:

As is commonly known, one of the biggest killers of ideas is the excuse, “We’ve never done it that way before.” 


However, profound ideas can come from the strangest places. Creative genius comes to people who are open to new ideas and different ways of doing things. For example, in 1964 the freighter Al Kuwait which was carrying 6,000 live sheep capsized and sank in Kuwait’s harbor. The sunken ship with its decomposing cargo began to present a serious threat to the country’s water supply through its desalination processing plant.

To overcome the problem the ship had to be raised and moved to a safe place without falling apart and dumping its poisonous contents into the nation’s water supply.

Karl Kroyer, a Danish engineer working in Kuwait, came up with a novel idea. He pumped 27 million ping-pong balls into the freighter’s hull which slowly raised it to the surface.

And where did he get this idea? From a Donald Duck comic book. Somebody sank Donald’s boat and he and his feathered friends raised it by filling it with ping-pong balls!

When it comes to creative living, a better place to get great ideas is in the words and examples of Jesus in the Bible. It pays to know it and hide its truths in our heart. One’s life is greatly enriched when it is lived in harmony with God’s Will and Word.

Read the complete devotional at ACTS International, or browse the Daily Encounter archives for many years’ worth of past devotionals.