One Minute Memory Verse 

Look to the Lord and His strength. Seek His face always.

 – 1 Chronicles 16:11

Previous Memory Verses

Philippians 4:6

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-19 

Rejoice always. Pray continually. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit. –

One Minute Bible

Acts 16:16-29 NIV

Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.

When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”

The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”

The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

One Minute Prayer

Father, we pray for faith in all circumstances. Lord, we believe; help us in our disbelief.

One Minute Praise

Psalm 37:5-6 NIV

Commit your way to the Lord;

trust in him and he will do this:

He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,

your vindication like the noonday sun.

One Minute Wisdom

Proverbs 28:26 NIV

Those who trust in themselves are fools, but those who walk in wisdom are kept safe.

One Minute Devotion

Lesson for parents: never give a BB gun to kids at Christmas if the weather is too nasty to use it outdoors. That was the case when I was seven. My brother David got a new Daisy BB Gun for Christmas, and I was the only indoor target at which to aim. What’s worse, is that I was a willing target. The gun was unloaded. He removed all the BBs and shot it towards the floor a few times. Sure enough, the gun was empty.

So, I posed on the far side of the bedroom like a duck in a shooting gallery. On the third shot, a BB that had been stuck in the barrel dislodged and shattered my glasses into my left eye. After a trip to the ER and several follow-up visits, they at last removed from my eye all the glass.

I trusted David. I still would. He would never hurt me. Likewise, I have faith in God, for I am confident that whatever circumstances, blessings or suffering, it will be for the furtherance of His Kingdom, or to glorify His name, or to perfect my love.

Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful May the fire of our devotion light their way. May the footprints that we leave…

One Minute Memory Verse 

Look to the Lord and His strength. Seek His face always.

 – 1 Chronicles 16:11

Previous Memory Verses

Philippians 4:6

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-19 

Rejoice always. Pray continually. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit. –

One Minute Bible

Jeremiah 36:31-36 NKJV

Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—  not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord.  But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.  No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

Thus says the Lord,

Who gives the sun for a light by day,

The ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night,

Who disturbs the sea,

And its waves roar

(The Lord of hosts is His name):

If those ordinances depart

From before Me, says the Lord,

Then the seed of Israel shall also cease

From being a nation before Me forever.”

One Minute Prayer

Father, give us the strength to remember the Covenant you’ve written in our hearts. Forgive us the times when we have ignored it. Remember our sins no more.

One Minute Praise

Psalm 13:5-6 NKJV

But I have trusted in Your mercy;

My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.

I will sing to the Lord,

Because He has dealt bountifully with me.

One Minute Wisdom

Proverbs 2:1,2,5 NKJV

My son, if you receive my words

and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; then you will understand the fear of the Lord

and find the knowledge of God.

One Minute Devotion

When I was four years old, I could see the mountains from our back yard in California. I was convinced that, if I tried, I could touch them when I swung high on my swing set. I never touched the mountains, of course.

Many people feel the same way about Christian holiness. Like the mountains a few miles away from the home of my childhood, holiness can be seen. One can swing toward it. One can reach for it. But one can never grasp it. We find ourselves chained in place, and end up swinging back from the mountaintop in endless cycles of gain and loss.

This is a sad misconception of Christian holiness. Holiness is the heart of the relationship between a Christian and the Lord. It is God’s will for us that we be sanctified (1 Thess 4:3). God commands us to be holy (1 Peter 1:13-16). He would not ask us to be holy if it were not possible.

Salvation writes the New Covenant on our hearts. Absolute surrender to God allows Him to work the grace of Sanctification in our hearts and mind, and imbues us with the power to live holy (as He has commanded).

I eventually tried to jump off the swing, in effort to fling myself to the mountain. I landed with a thud just a few feet away, scraping my knees and hands.

If one wants to grasp holiness, then one must let go of the chains that tether us, and trust Jesus. For only one who flings himself into the arms of God will know His holiness. Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take Him at His word…

 One Minute Memory Verse 

Philippians 4:6

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Last week’s memory verse:

Rejoice always. Pray continually. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit. – 1 Thessalonians 5:16-19

One Minute Bible

Matthew 26:1-16 KJV

And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said unto his disciples, Ye know that after two days is the feast of the Passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified.   Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, And consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him.   But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people.

Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat.   But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste?   For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.   When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me.   For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always.   For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.   Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.

Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.   And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him.

One Minute Prayer

Father, teach us the lessons of this passage: to lavish you worship without consideration of cost, for you have sent Jesus to us just as you did to Simon the Leper, to sup with us in spite of our frailties.

One Minute Praise

Psalm 145:14-19 KJV

The Lord upholdeth all that fall,

and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.

The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.

Thou openest thine hand,

and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.

The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.

The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.

He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.

One Minute Wisdom

Proverbs 3:9 NKJV

Honor the Lord with your possessions, And with the firstfruits of all your increase; So your barns will be filled with plenty, And your vats will overflow with new wine

One Minute Devotion

Joe looked like he could take care of himself, but when life choices put him in prison for a year, he was scared to death. He had no doubt that he must return to God of his youth. He prayed desperately for God to intervene.

In little ways, God showed Joe that He heard his prayers. Joe’s counselor and case manager were Christians, as were some of the guard. He was put in a cell block where he met other Christians with whom he could pray. He found caring chaplains who cared about the condition of his heart. Joe heard God’s voice in nearly every step of the year-long journey.

Joe attended every chapel service offered. On Sundays, he sat in both the Protestant and Catholic services. On Mondays, he went to a Gideon meeting. Tuesdays, he attended a “holy-roller” service. Wednesdays, a simple Bible Study. Thursdays, a singspiration. Joe learned to pray without ceasing, and grew nearer to God than he thought possible. He went to prison a lost sheep, and got out a lamb recognizing his master’s voice. There is a place of quiet rest, near to the heart of God…