JCSM's Weekly Devotions (click here to listen!)

"From Milk to Meat"

1 Peter 2:1-3  "Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious."

Hebrews 5:12-14  "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.  For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.  But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."

2 Timothy 2:15, 16  "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.  But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness."

Hebrews 10:24, 25  "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.  Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

1 Thessalonians 5:17  "Pray without ceasing."

Insight: Christians should be studying the Word, praying, and meeting with other Christians.  This will help us become spiritually mature.  We need to begin with spiritual milk and move on to spiritual food as quickly as we are able.

Prayer: "Dear Lord, bless us and help us to grow from milk to meat.  Thank you for your love for us and your patience with us.  There is no other like You!  Bless us and conform us to your image.  Thank you for those people who are a blessing to us.  In Jesus' name, Amen."

On January 14, 1890, English geologist Arthur Holmes (1890-1965) was born. He was one of the first researchers to use the radiometric method of rock dating, devised in 1911. Holmes arrived at an earth age of a few million years. This figure was greatly increased in the following decades. However, the absolute dating of the past is a difficult problem. Many creation scientists caution that radiometric dating is uncertain and error-prone. As the only fundamental method for dating rocks, radiometric dating may be over-emphasized.

This excerpt was taken from Donald DeYoung's book called, "365 Fascinating Facts From the World of Discovery."

(This explanation came from "The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained", by Dr. Jason Gastrich.  This book is on CD and gives over 4,000 answers to alleged Bible errors, regarding the entire Bible at http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.org.  There is also a 300 question workbook that accompanies the CD-ROM.)

It's difficult to think and listen at the same time.  Sometimes you must listen closely without thinking your own thoughts.

There are moral laws that govern the universe.

If you live outside God's laws there will be consequences.

When the angel approached Joseph about Jesus, he told him Jesus' purpose on Earth.

Pornography goes against everything marriage stands for.

We're living in a world that desperately needs God.

Some people are consumed with removing the only source of hope we have.

Some of us are fitting into the world's system and losing sight of the things of God.

Psalms of ascent could have been read on the ascent to Jerusalem, on each of the fifteen steps to the altar, or sung in ascending keys.

God gives us wisdom through afflictions.

When we're not moving forward, we begin to drift.

When you grow in wisdom, you learn to wait.

Great Christians are the result of great studying, great prayer, and great suffering.

Apart from God, life makes no sense.

If you'd like to read more quotes, you'll want a copy of Dr. Gastrich's book called, "10,000 Wise Quotes and Spiritual Sayings"!  It's the largest collection of Bible-based quotations in the world.