The series preaching through 1 Samuel continues with chapter 7.  Putting away the false gods that have been brought in alongside the true One in our lives brings revival, restoration, and victory.  Sunday messages are in English with Romanian translation.

For you and me personally

“…I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
–Gal. 2:20b

A Walk of Faith devotional by Dave Bunnell

More times than I can count, we’ve been telling the gospel to people in Romania, and told them of how Christ died on the cross for their sins, only to hear in response, “No, He didn’t die for me and my sins—He died for the whole world.”

Coming from an eastern orthodox background, that’s what they’ve largely been taught—that Christ died for the world in general, to make it possible for us to live a life good enough to earn God’s favor if we follow His rules well enough. But each person will remain responsible for his own sins against God in eternity, as the bad we do is weighed against the good to determine our final destiny. That false teaching is an easy sell for the orthodox priests, because it is what the fleshly human heart wants to believe: I can be good enough that God should accept me, the heart whispers to itself.

The verse above from Galatians provides God’s answer to their misconception.

When Jesus was on the cross, He wasn’t just making atonement in general. He was showing His love for me as an individual. He was giving His life for me. I was so drenched in sin and degradation that for me to come to God and please Him would require a price no lower than the very life of the invaluable Son of God sacrificed in my place. And although I didn’t deserve it, and never will deserve it, He loved me. He not only loved me, but loved me soooooo much that He gave Himself for me.

And He gave Himself for you, too. Personally. He valued you enough to pay that ultimate price for you. Galatians 2 says so, in personal terms. Think on that for a few moments. Let it sink in fresh and new. Let this truth run through your mind throughout the day today, restoring unto you the joy of His salvation: “Jesus loves me, and gave Himself for me.” Then live by that faith with exceeding joy.

Walk of Faith’s Summer of Psalms series continues with Psalm 2. Remember, the Lord reigns over all—over history, over all the earth, and over the future. And the God who reigns is the God who saves us and makes us His eternal friends.

Created on August 11, 2020

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Curious About Evil

A Walk of Faith Devotional by Dave Bunnell

“but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil.”

(Rom. 16:9b)

A 2010 film, due to its subject matter and the fact that it was in 3-D, was promoted with the tagline, “Experience a whole new dimension of evil.”

The marketing team that came up with that knew something more than just how to turn a phrase or make a pun. They knew what lies within the human heart. Namely, a nature that is curious about evil.

That was a big part of how Satan caused the fall to begin with. God had made people in a world where they only experienced that which was morally exemplary. Adam and Eve had never seen evil, never heard evil, never spoken evil, never done evil. They were innocent regarding evil. They only had knowledge of good. And God, while giving them the opportunity to choose, commanded them to stay in a state of knowledge of only good.

Along came the devil, basically saying to Eve, “Don’t settle for knowing only good. Experience evil, too. Disobey God by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You’ll be wise like Him, then. Innocence isn’t for you—come to know both good and evil. You’ll be like God, deciding for yourself what’s right and what’s wrong, and you won’t regret it.”

Of course, they did regret it. Choosing to know evil is choosing to experience death and a loss of the life and peace walking with a Holy God would bring.

Ever since she and her husband made the wrong choice, then, the battle rages within us all. Sometimes it takes religious forms, like in Buddhism, which is all based on the ying-yang philosophy that balancing the amount of light and darkness, good and evil, in your soul, is the road to inner peace. Other times, it shows itself in the temptation to read books, listen to music, or watch films that glorify darkness and curse the light. Gossip often has its roots in a dark desire to know all of the bad things others are doing. Even as Christians, we will be tempted to “look into evil,” if for no more reason than that we’re curious to know how bad things can get.

Perhaps we need to be reminded that when we seek ways to increase our knowledge of evil, we are playing with fire. Because of this tendency in us to want at least a vicarious experience of evil, Paul’s closing to the book of Romans contains this warning, “but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil.” (Rom. 16:9b)

That’s a key to peace and fulfillment in your walk with God. Pursue righteousness, mercy, peace, holiness, cleanness of heart and mind. Focus your attention on knowing more about what is good and right and just. And while you focus your attention in that direction, make an effort to avoid feeding the desire to know about evil.

If you ever feel like you’re out of touch because you don’t keep up with “pop culture,” consider yourself blessed to be innocent, or even ignorant, of the level of evil that is in the world. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you need to rent that film everyone’s talking about because you want to experience the chills of a horror flick that takes violence to never-before-seen heights. Don’t let yourself be too curious about the portrayals in the latest music videos as the producers of them try to make them more and more pornographic to draw an audience. When your coworkers or classmates are dishing out the dirty details of someone’s sinful activities, don’t linger to listen.

Sometimes, the enemy might even try to trick us with thoughts like, “You need to know all about the latest things that the world is into, so that you can relate and reach them for Christ.” It might sound logical on the surface, but go to the Lord and tell Him that and see what He says. Ask Him how many people have been reached because they were impressed by some Christian’s ability to talk at length about the depths of society’s depravity. He might say you don’t really need any of that. He might tell you that faith comes by hearing, and by hearing the word of God.

It is good to be out of the loop about wicked things. As followers of Christ, let’s try to become more so.

Walk of Faith’s Summer of Psalms series continues with Psalm 100. When times are hard, sometimes we need help serving the Lord and maintaining joy. Today we see how and why we can still serve with gladness, and be rewarded now, and after this life.

Created on August 4, 2020

A Walk of Faith Devotional from Dave Bunnell

“For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor. . .”
1 Thessalonians 4:3-4

There may be no human relationship whose integrity is more vigorously attacked by our enemy the devil and by our rebellious sin nature than the relationship of the marriage bed. Our fleshly desires and the influences around us make constant war against God’s call to purity.
      When we live outside the boundaries God has created for our protection and provision, it hurts us and our loved ones in tragic ways and opens the door for blasphemy from unbelievers. But when we allow Him to sanctify us, we become pure vessels, set apart to carry the good news of His salvation to the world.
     1 Thessalonians 4 teaches us that when we belong to Christ, we don’t have to be at the mercy of our sinful desires; we have the Holy Spirit within us to teach us how to control our own bodies in holiness and honor, and thus meet God’s standards for sexual morality. Those standards are found in the Bible and are easy to understand: Marriage is for one man and one woman for life. We are not to have sex with anyone to whom we are not married. We are not to refuse to meet our spouse’s physical needs. We are not to lust after others in our hearts.
     Brothers and sisters, if your life does not match God’s design for sexuality, today is the day to ask for and receive Christ’s forgiveness and allow Him to cleanse you from unrighteousness. If you are deviating from His standards in any way, the living word of God and the Holy Spirit of God plead with you now: Do not remain as you are; be sanctified.
God has all of the power, all of the wisdom, and all of the strength necessary to bring about even radical changes in your lifestyle and thought life. Surrender to Him and let Him do His work today. Your sanctification is His will. Let His will be done.

Summer of Psalms series continues with Psalm 146. Sometimes we are overwhelmed with frustration, because we’re putting our hopes in someone who can only disappoint us. We need to put our trust in God to do what only He can do to make our lives, our nation, and our world a better place.

Today’s Bible study in Galatians, we are redeemed from the curse of the law and slavery, and also adopted as sons of God.  In English with Romanian translation.

A Walk of Faith Devotional by Dave Bunnell

They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.” When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.
–Nehemiah 1:3-4

Nehemiah was taken by surprise that day when he asked how things were in the home country of Israel.
Things are bad, was the report. Very bad. The capital city had suffered disgrace, and its people were very insecure because there was no gate to protect them from further trouble and harm. They had turned their backs on God and forgotten His covenant with them. So God had lifted His hand of protection from them for a time. Now they had begun to repent and return to the land, but the consequences of their sins lingered, and they were feeling vulnerable, humiliated, and defenseless.
Nehemiah was not personally affected. In fact, he lived in peace, safety, and extravagance as a servant and possibly a confidant of a powerful foreign king. But that didn’t matter now. Because Nehemiah loved his country, and more importantly, he loved the God who had formed his country and blessed it greatly with His presence, provision and protection in generations past. So this dire report shook Nehemiah’s soul.
At first, all he could do was cry. Just sit down and weep tears that welled up from a pain deep in his bones. This pain wouldn’t fade quickly. It would take several days.
Several days of mourning.
Several days of fasting.
Several days of crying out to the God of Israel and the God of heaven for His restoring hand to be upon His people once again.
Can you identify?
Do you mourn over the condition of your country, or your church, or your family? Are you in a situation where the people and places you care most about are in turmoil that rots your life with sadness while comfort seems to be so slow in coming?
If that’s the case, take heart. Because God uses a person who mourns what He mourns. God blesses the one who weeps when He weeps.
Nehemiah was such a man. So God had a plan for him. He would use Nehemiah to do some amazing things and bring about a level of restoration that seemed impossible in that moment when the bad news came.
For a time, Nehemiah would weep, and mourn, and fast, and pray. Then God would turn Nehemiah’s grief into dogged determination and utter reliance upon Him, and He would use Nehemiah as His instrument to rebuild a wall around the Holy City. Nehemiah’s resulting walk of faith would give him one of the most impressive testimonies in Bible history.
If the walls have come down for you, this book will be one you’ll enjoy studying. It will bring you hope, and give you guidance on how to be used of God to rebuild the walls once again.
If you’re grieving today over the news that has come your way, then God is already taking you on the first step of a journey of rebuilding. Now is the time for you to follow Nehemiah’s example on how to handle grief: When everything falls apart, take your tears to the Lord. In heartfelt prayer and an attitude of recognizing just how deeply you need Him, pray. Then today’s tears can become the seeds of tomorrow’s joy, because they will build your resolve and fortify your trust in a God who never disappoints those whose desire to serve Him does not wane and whose trust in Him does not waver.

Psalm 27, Walk of Faith Devotional – Psalms of summer
The Lord will be your confidence in fearful circumstances. You can thrive in the difficulties of life if your focus is on Him and you keep yourself in His presence.
Walk of Faith video devotional with Pastor Dave Bunnell, recorded July 21, 2020

Coming Sunday morning at 11, Romanian time.

The continuation of a study through 1 Samuel, looking at chapter 4, in English with Romanian translation: