Day 102

NO OTHER GODS BESIDES ME

Today’s Text: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:4-6)

Today’s Thoughts: Only God is worthy of our worship. We must never reverence anyone or anything else. He is to be our only God and the only One we worship. God is a jealous God. Wouldn’t you be?! He created us and then He gave His Son to die in our place so He could keep us, and then we decide that He isn’t good enough and find other gods. When we sin – we reap the results. The results of sin often affect more than just the ones who sin – it can affect, as this text tells us, generations to come. But God doesn’t want us to choose the gods in this world, whatever they be, because He knows that any other god will only cause us pain. He wants us to have Him as our one and only God. If He is our God He will be merciful to us. If we choose Him, love Him and obey Him He will have mercy on us. I want the Lord to be merciful to me and bless me. I want to place Him as First and Foremost and All in All. I want Him to be my everything. How about you?

Today’s Testimony: God might be first in our lives, but do we have other gods as well? When the Lord gave the Ten Commandments the other nations were worshipping graven images, more commonly known as idols. We do still have idols today, but those are not the only gods we can have. This commandment I often used to skim over as I did with many of the others. For instance the one that says, “Thou shalt not kill.” I didn’t really think I had to worry too much about that one because I would never kill anyone on purpose, but there is far more to this commandment than what it appears to be. I found the same with the second commandment. I don’t have or worship any idols so I thought I didn’t have to worry about this one. The way I’ve rephrased it is the way I now understand this commandment – “No other gods besides me”.
A god can be anyone or anything that occupies a special place in your heart. No, I’m not saying that everyone and everything that occupies a special place in your heart is a god, but those things are what can become gods. A god usually has some sort of control over our lives. For instance: how does fashion affect the way you dress? How do your friends affect the way you speak and act? Do TV, movies, books and games have an influence on your mind? Does food appeal to you more than it should? Are you over-concerned about your weight? Are there any forms of entertainment you would hate to miss? What matters to you in this life? Have you got any gods other than the one true God?
I think most of us, if not all of us, have things in our lives that have a very important place in our hearts. We need to be sure that God is our only source of strength, peace and joy and that nothing else is ever good enough. We need to run to God when we’re in need and to no one and nothing else. It’s when we try and find peace in someone or something other than God that we become more dependent on other gods. The peace this world can offer is only temporal – God’s peace is eternal. The benefit of having God as our one and only God is that we can have eternal peace no matter what troubles we face, because we always run to the only one who can solve our problems. We can be content when all else fails and disappears – God will always be there. If we only follow the Lord’s will for our lives we will be far happier than if we followed the will of others and our own will. God knows what’s best for us. He will have mercy on us if we choose Him as our One and Only. Life is sweeter with only one God!

Today’s Task: Today’s message is the hardest one for me to follow, even though I used to think it didn’t apply to me. We all need to find our only source of peace, strength and joy in our Lord Jesus Christ. If we need to feel valued – we need to find that sense of value in knowing that Christ valued us enough to give His life for us and that he still cares about us so much. God is ALL we need. Today’s task is simply to remember that and to give God our hearts – the whole thing.

Today’s Thanks: O Lord we praise You that You are our God. Please help us to have no other gods besides You. We thank You for the peace, joy, strength, sense of value and all our other needs that only You can provide. Please help us to run to You and to You alone. All earthly gods are only temporal peace-givers and will never fill those empty spaces in our hearts. Lord I thank You that You want to fill every heart and that You have not just left us to battle on alone without Your mercy. I thank You for the benefit of making You our One and Only and All in All. Please help us, we are so weak. Lord please be our Everything. We love You Lord. Amen.

Day 101

NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME

Today’s Text: Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:3)

Today’s Thoughts: God created us and thus we belong to Him. We chose to stray and thus in order for Him to be able to keep us forever He sent His Son to die for us. We deserved to die but God bought us so that He could live with us for all eternity. That’s the kind of God we serve. Our God does not require us to appease Him with human sacrifices as believed about some other gods – our God sacrificed Himself in our place. We serve an amazing God! He wants to be first in our lives, but truly He deserves to be. We need to be careful not to ever hold anything or anyone above the Lord, including ourselves. May God always occupy the first place in our hearts and lives.

Today’s Testimony: For years I wondered about the first two commandments. To me they seemed so similar. I figured that if you didn’t have any gods before the Lord you obviously wouldn’t worship any graven images. But then I saw the huge difference between the two commandments and realized why the Lord gave them both. The first one says, “No gods before Me – I must be first and foremost.” The second one says, “No other gods beside Me – I must be your all in all.” Yes these two commandments may be similar, but they have an important difference. We’ll discuss a bit more about the difference tomorrow.
Right now I’d like to share the benefit of keeping the first commandment. When I introduced this topic I mentioned that the first four commandments display our love for God. The first four commandments can thus often seem like selfish requests. But seeing we know that God is far from selfish, we could maybe settle for the fact that God asks us to do these things because he deserves our love and obedience. But there is something far more special about these commandments. God gave them because He knew they would benefit us. And yet, let me be quite honest – the observance of these first four commandments is a life or death situation. Please keep reading through this entire series and if you are not convinced, ask the Lord. If you’re still not convinced – I’m only an email away.
So now let’s discuss the benefit of having no other gods above the one true God. Let me start by asking you if you have a very close earthly friend? Do you share everything, or just about everything, together? Do you both know what the other likes and dislikes? Do you ever know what the other would say about a certain situation before you’ve even shared it with him or her, simply because you know each other so well? Why is it that you know each other so well? Is it because of the time you spend together being best friends? It’s when someone is important to you that you come to know them personally right? That’s how it must be with God. We need to spend so much time with Him building on a personal relationship that when He speaks – we know it’s Him; when we need to make a decision – we know what He would have us do; when we have a problem – we can peacefully trust in Him. That’s what we need!!! We need to have God as first and foremost in our lives so that we can cope with all that life throws at us. How many times do we make terrible mistakes because we cannot hear God’s voice leading us? How many times do we shrink into despair when we face trials because we cannot sense the Lord’s peace? How many times do we not know what God would have us do as opposed to what we want, others want or Satan himself wants? Would you like to be able to live with the certainty that all these fears would be gone? The answer is quite simple, and yet to put it into practice is not that easy. We need to get to know the Lord better – we need to have Him as our first and only God. We need a relationship with the Lord that is so strong that nothing can separate us from His side. We cannot live eternally with the Lord if we do not have a personal relationship with Him and the only way to get an unshakeable one is to place Him as first and foremost. We can only truly cope in this life if we do the same. God truly wasn’t being selfish – He knew we’d need Him.

Today’s Task: Make sure God is Your God above all else. Spend time with Him and form a strong and personal relationship with your Saviour. You need the Lord! Please give Him first place in your heart and life and never ever give that place to anyone or anything else. Make God your one and only.

Today’s Thanks: O Lord I thank You that You gave us the Ten Commandments for our benefit. I praise You that we can have a close, strong and personal relationship with You. I thank You that You’ve done all You can to make that possible – the rest is up to us. Please help us to place You first in our lives so that we can come to know You more. Help us to have no other gods before You. We want to know You. We love You Lord. Amen.

Day 100

OPEN MY EYES TO WONDROUS THINGS

Today’s Text: Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. (Psalm 119:18)

Today’s Thoughts: Have you ever heard of the Ten Commandments? They are also referred to as the Law of God. When we hear of laws and rules we often don’t have very good thoughts do we? We want to be free, but at the same time we do realize that rules and laws are important. God has given us a set of guidelines for happy living. He wants us to live happy and fulfilling lives and that is why He gave them. I don’t know what you presently think about the Ten Commandments, but bear with me for a few days and I’ll share with you what the Lord has shared with me. God wants to open our eyes to behold wondrous things in His law. God’s Law was given for our benefit.

Today’s Testimony: Now I’m not sure what you know about the Ten Commandments so first we’ll have to share a few things of importance. The Ten Commandments are divided into two sections. In keeping the first four we display our love for God and by keeping the last six we display our love for our fellow man. You can read about this in Matthew 22:35 – 40. The Ten Commandment themselves can be found in Exodus 20:1-17.
Human beings are selfish – there’s no question about it. So the logical question for a sinful human being to ask is, “So there’s something in it for God and something in it for others… but what’s in it for me?” I’d like you to think about the answer to this question for a bit. Were the Ten Commandments given for your benefit?
During the next few days we’re going to discover what the benefit is for keeping each of the Ten Commandments. Some say we no longer have to keep them. We’re not going to dive into that at this stage, but let me say this – if what the Lord has shown me is correct, and that the Commandments have personal benefit for each and every one of us… why on earth would we not want to keep them?
I don’t know what your feelings are toward the keeping of the Ten Commandments, but I ask you to please continue reading Today’s T’s as we discuss this amazing truth together. Once you’ve read all that the Lord has shown me you can make an educated decision on whether or not you want to keep the Ten Commandments or not, but I promise you that keeping them will do you no harm. If it does bring you harm it shows that Satan is definitely not happy with your decision to live by God’s guideline given to His people so many years ago. I’m telling you – they can still benefit us today!
God does everything for the good of His children. The fact that God gave His Ten Commandments means that He knew that they would be for the good of His people. If they were good for them then – I believe they’re good for us now. This beautiful truth of the benefit in keeping the Ten Commandments only hit me a few months ago, and I want to share it with you. Please will you allow me to?

Today’s Task: Today I simply want you to bow your head and ask the Lord to open your eyes to the wonderful things in His Law. Ask Him to show you all the wonderful truths He wants you to know. Please be open to His voice.

Today’s Thanks: O Lord I praise You that You love us. I thank You that You gave the Ten Commandments for us; for our benefit. Please help us to realize that You gave them in love. Lord I pray that You will help us to keep Your Commandments so that we can receive the benefits; but Lord, if some of us refuse to, please may this study at least help all of us to realize more fully that You do all things in love and for our benefit. Lord, please help us to obey You in all things so that You can see and know that we love You. We do love You Lord. Amen.

GOD’S BLESSINGS ARE NEW EVERY DAY

Today’s Text: It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22, 23)

Today’s Thoughts: The Lord should have destroyed us long ago. We are so sinful and cause Him so much pain. But His love forbids that. Because of His love and tender mercy for each one of us He did not destroy us and He is patiently waiting for us to fully surrender to Him. God faithfully blesses us every day even though we definitely do not deserve His mercies. His blessings are new every morning. God does not forget about His people – He loves us too much!

Today’s Testimony: When the Lord gave me this ministry He promised that He would provide the testimonies. He has never failed me. It’s not always easy to press on, but God grants me the strength I need. God is so good!
As VBS was approaching and I knew I would be busy and exhausted I wondered if I should take a break from Today’s T’s for the two weeks that I was teaching at two different Vacation Bible Schools. I asked the Lord and He told me that I must rather press on and He would tell me what to share. He promised that He could provide a blessing to share even if it be one day at a time. So that’s what I did – I continued. This week is my second week of VBS. Last week, although Today’s T’s came later than usual, I still sent them every day. But Thursday was an extremely busy day and I knew Friday would be worse. I asked the Lord about it and He said that I had continued with Today’s T’s as He had said and I could therefore take the day off from Today’s T’s on Friday.
Today I’m sharing testimony number 99. I stand in awe! My God is so amazing and so good! When He calls us to do a work for Him He does not leave us to do it alone – He’s right there with us. He has always provided testimonies for me to share – whether it be through helping me to choose the right one to share, or by blessing me with a brand new one – He has never left me empty-handed. I might go to Him feeling empty-handed sometimes, but He always sends me away with my hands full. God is so good! He provides me with new blessings every morning. We serve an amazing God!

Today’s Task: Trust the Lord to bless you with whatever you need. He knows your needs and He knows you. Ask Him to intervene no matter what it is that’s troubling you. God cares about you. Place your concerns in His hands. I invite you today to thank the Lord for all His wonderful blessings – they are new every day.

Today’s Thanks: O Lord I thank You that You bless us so much and that Your blessings are new every morning. You’ve never forsaken us and we praise You. I thank You that You did not destroy us, but are patiently calling us to You. Please help us to trust You more. I thank You for Your great love for us. Help us to tell others about the ways You have blessed us. Help us to help others to come to know You too. We love You Lord. Amen.

THE LORD REIGNS

Today’s Text: Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice: and let men say among the nations, The LORD reigneth. (1 Chronicles 16:31)

Today’s Thoughts: If there’s one thing to rejoice and be glad about it’s that our God reigns. Yes Satan causes turmoil in our lives, but even though we chose him as prince of this world when we sinned, God is still in control and has the highest authority. Satan can do nothing without God’s consent. Some people think that because God allows bad things to happen to His people He is not a totally fair and loving God, but knowing that we often still choose Satan as the guiding voice in our lives and sin, all I can say is that I’m thankful that God does not leave us to reap the consequences of choosing Satan as our prince. We should be in a far worse condition, but God intervenes. He loves us. God knows all things; He knows what is best. He will work all things out for good when we trust Him, even though it may not always seem that way to us. God really does care about us.

Today’s Testimony: People often have questions like, “If God is a loving God then why does He allow us to suffer so much?” “Where is God?” “If God is real then why doesn’t He intervene?” People seem to get so confused. I think those people have totally forgotten that Satan is still very much alive and active to hurt us and to turn us away from God. Satan wants God to get the blame for his evil acts, and so many people believe his lie. I wrote this song to try to give a better perspective to the whole topic. But one thing that I know – I’ve seen God’s hand blessing me far too many times to believe that He is not real and does not love me. I know that He is real and loves me – no question about it.

God Is Alive

Why is there so much corruption?
Why is there so much pain?
Why do we death and destruction?
And when we look for the sun, why does it always rain?

Why is there so much beauty?
Why is there so much joy?
Why do we see growth and victory?
And people living by faith that none can ever destroy?

Why so much contrast, when we look at this life?
Why do we see peace mingled with strife?
For the prince of this world, the prince of darkness
Is not left to rain at his will
There’s a God of love, who in the midst of the storm
Can come and simply say, “Peace, be still.”

God is alive and well and He’s reigning on the throne
Tenderly caring for his own
God is alive and well and He’s reigning on the throne
Tenderly caring for his own

Just take a look and you will clearly see
The reason we’re alive today could only be
Because God is real and He loves us with infinite love
He provides for and protects us from His throne up above

God is alive and well and He’s reigning on the throne
Tenderly caring for his own
God is alive and well and He’s reigning on the throne
Tenderly caring for his own

God is alive, O He’s alive
And reigning in love

Today’s Task: As the founder of 3ABN (a Christian satellite broadcasting network), Danny Shelton (This song was inspired by his words), always says, “God is alive and well and on the throne.” – believe it! The Lord is God and He loves us. He will never forsake His people. Trust His goodness and rest in His peace. Ask Him to reign in your life. God is good – always good, and only good! Don’t ever forget that. Praise Him for His love and care right now.

Today’s Thanks: O Lord I praise You that You are good. I thank You that You look after Your people. Please help us to remember that all evil comes from Satan. Help us to remember that we can trust You to work all things out for our good. I thank You that You reign. Please reign in our hearts. I thank You that You love us so much. We love You too. Amen.

GOD WILL GUIDE

Today’s Text: For thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy name's sake lead me, and guide me. (Psalm 31:3)

Today’s Thoughts: God is our rock and our fortress. We can lean on Him and hide in Him. We have chosen Him as our God and for that reason He will lead us and guide us. Our God is great and every great deed that He does brings honour and glory to His name. God can intervene no matter what our problems are – we can lean on Him, hide in Him and follow Him. We serve a great and loving God!

Today’s Testimony: I’m studying Psychological Counselling. The modules were all pretty straight forward and from the start all I had to decide on was what to choose as my major. Then this year things changed. I have to do a module on African Language and this year they added two pre-requisites that I have to do first. I decided to register for the first pre-requisite for the first semester this year. But there was a mistake and I couldn’t register online for that module, so I left it and took something else instead.
That wasn’t such a big problem, but the bigger problem I had was that the major I had been doing (General Education) had been dropped and I had to select an alternative. I phoned to find out if those who were already doing that as a major could continue and was told that I had to choose something else. I decided to leave it and try a different major and then if that didn’t work I’d phone a bit more. The new major (Public Administration) was definitely not for me. I cannot see myself ever working in that field. On top of the subject not appealing to me, the exam was horrific. I left it all in God’s hands.
This semester I tried registering for the same African Language module I’d battled to register for last time and the registration went through. I didn’t know what to do about my major and was weighing up my options. I decided to email my former General Education lecturer and ask about it, but I couldn’t find the address. Finally the Lord led me to look at the list of subjects for registration. General Education had been placed back!!! I chose my modules and submitted. First my registration was unsuccessful, but then after submitting it for inspection it was successful.
God is so good! He solved all the registration problems and then led me to check the list and to try again to register for the problem modules. God can guide us in any of our problems. He can clear the way, and then He can guide us down the path He cleared. I’ve chosen the Lord as my Guide – have you?

Today’s Task: Ask the Lord to be your Guide – then follow His leading. Trust Him to open doors for you. God knows what you need. Lean on Him; hide in Him and follow Him. God loves you – love Him back!

Today’s Thanks: O Lord I thank You that You care about us so much. I thank You that You lead and guide us. I thank You that You intervene in our lives. Please help us to trust You more. I thank You that You can clear the way before us and then guide us down that path. We love You and we praise You. Amen.

CLOTHED WITH HUMILITY

Today’s Text: Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. (1 Peter 5:5)

Today’s Thoughts: The human heart is proud. We naturally want attention and honour. We want to be important and we often think of ourselves first. But God wants us to think of others before ourselves. He wants us to be humble servants of His who know that we are all that we are only because of Him. We need to always look at ourselves in comparison to our mighty God, not in comparison to those around us. Yet at the same time, we need to see our worth in knowing that that same God values us. But in spite of what God or anyone else thinks of us, may we remain humble and clothed with humility. Let us love others and place them first.

Today’s Testimony: Today I’m going to share another song. This one was written in 2006. Whenever we face the threat of becoming proud we need to run to the Lord and ask Him to humble us. Christ humbled Himself more than we could ever really comprehend when He came to this earth to live and die for us – surely we can follow in His steps even though it be in a far smaller degree.

Lord Humble Me

Lord humble me
Clothe me with humility
Lord change my heart
So that my mind from You won’t depart
Lord may You be able to say I’ve died
To self and my pride
Out of Your love and tender mercy
O Lord humble me

So many times I look at who I am
And feel that on my own I can stand
But then I look again and clearly see
That there is nothing good in me
So when I’m threatened by my pride
I run to my Saviour’s side
And plead with Him earnestly
Asking Him to humble me

Lord humble me
Clothe me with humility
Lord change my heart
So that my mind from You won’t depart
Lord may You be able to say I’ve died
To self and my pride
Out of Your love and tender mercy
O Lord humble me

Today’s Task: Ask the Lord to humble you and keep you humble. Ask Him to clothe you with humility. Ask Him to help you to be a powerful witness for Him through your humble life. Thank the Lord that He was willing to humble himself enough to live and die for you. God values you – praise Him.

Today’s Thanks: O Lord I thank You that You love and care about us so much. I thank You that You humbled Yourself for us. Please help us to become humble servants of Yours. Lord clothe us with humility. Help us to remain humble and show the world a glimpse of the loving God we serve. We love You Lord. Amen.