Kerusso Daily Devotional

Have you ever wondered what your place in this world is? Of course, you have. That’s the human experience.  Alone with our thoughts, we wonder who we even are, and what we are meant to do. It’s a mysterious journey, but the fog lifts and the way becomes clear when we get to know King Jesus. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared...

Sometimes life can be overwhelming. I think we can all agree about that. A huge wave of despair can seemingly come out of nowhere, and push us toward disaster. Anita’s life was like that, growing up in Hong Kong where revolutionary movements brought violence and loss of hope. She couldn’t see how the pieces of her life could be put together. She would ask herself, “How do you make peace with a pot...

Have you ever noticed how much we love ritual and form as part of religion? We become so good at it, so obsessed with it, that we lose sight of the essence of what it means to be a Christian. To know God. That is the primary purpose of our journey, and it will be the end of our journey. It is so foundational to who we are as humans that even the great Moses basically begged God to let him see Him....

The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci is widely looked upon as the most famous painting in the world. By some historical estimates, the Mona Lisa took as many as 16 years to finish! Capturing Mona Lisa’s famous smile on a poplar plank was no hack job; Leonardo accepted a commission for the work in the year 1503, and completed his masterpiece supposedly around the time of his death in 1519. Clearly, t...

Do you struggle to wonder what God’s will is for your life? Many of us do. Although it isn’t a quick answer, the best way to find God’s will for your life is to read His Word. The Bible will tell you the answer to that question. Romans 8:31 tells us, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Actually, finding God’s will isn’t the hardest part. Deciding to follow His will is where we get tripped u...

We live in a broken world, and humanity is the most broken and imperfect of all God’s creation. The world has a permanent OUT OF ORDER sign on it, and as a result, most of us are looking for answers to our questions and solutions to our problems in all the wrong places. We place our trust in ourselves, in shallow standards of beauty, in money, and in our relationships with other people, hoping for...

Family is a wonderful thing, and these relationships do so much to enrich our lives, but family makes a lousy god. People sometimes think...if only my relationship was better with my dad, or if only I found a husband or wife, or if only we had kids — then life would be complete. A picture-perfect family is a blessing, indeed, but this is not where God wants us to seek meaning in our lives. Family...

What are you worth? This is an ugly question you’d never ask in polite company, although you may be curious about the answer. “The real measure of your wealth is how much you’d be worth if you lost all your money.” This anonymous quote serves us well in our discussion of what happens when we choose to follow dollar bills, instead of the Lord. When we judge each other, and ourselves, by the value o...

Annual cosmetic industry sales in the United States are about $89.5 billion dollars. That’s nearly 90 billion, with a B, spent on makeup and personal care items including skincare, haircare, perfumes, toiletries, deodorants, and oral cosmetics. For perspective, of 148 nations tracked in 2019 by TheGlobalEconomy.com, 126 of them had annual national expenditures of less than 90 billion dollars, incl...

Baal. Molech. Ashtoreth. Chemosh. Artemis. These names may not ring a bell for you, but back in biblical times, these false gods and others were known as competitors for devotion alongside our one true God — the God of Israel. If you aren’t a modern-day Bible scholar or a student of ancient history, these false gods may not be familiar, but make no mistake — just because we don’t use these same na...

Have you ever paused and thought about how rarely people see you for who you are? Have you ever done something that you feel is almost unforgivable? You need to know that is not the way God wants you to feel.  Psalm 51:10 says, “Create in me a pure heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Some of the most famous people in history were very unrighteous at times. King David, described as...

John Kralik was in a bad place. The LA attorney was generally miserable…divorced again, broke, and living in a dingy apartment with no air conditioning. He was also struggling to pay his employees because clients wouldn’t pay him. Not exactly glamorous, but then John did an amazing thing. He decided he would concentrate on things to be grateful for, and follow that up with writing a thank you note...

With the tech boom has come concerns that we are constantly under surveillance, or being watched. And maybe that’s not all a conspiracy theory. But no one in the world knows everything about us. There is still some privacy, some places we can go away from prying eyes. Except… Psalm 69:5 says, “O God, you know my folly; the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.” We know that we serve the One...

It’s almost universally believed that tech guru Steve Jobs floated into mega success with Apple, the company he co-founded with Steve Wozniak. Job’s first go-around at Apple didn’t end well in 1985, when he was forced out. His next effort wasn’t a home run either, yet Jobs put his head down like a fullback and plowed ahead. Next up for him was founding Pixar and finally, more than a decade after h...

Honestly…sometimes, as Christians, we think things are going to be easy. After all, when Jesus saves you, it doesn’t get any better than that! The joy we feel is genuine, and lasting. But—that doesn’t mean we escape this world. Bad things can and do happen. This week, we’re talking about having enough grit to get to the glory. Romans 5:3–4 says, “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, b...

Do you ever stop and think about the routine things you do every day? Buying detergent so you can wash your family’s clothes. Fixing a couple of boards on your deck. We even grind through staff meetings at work. All of this, of course, mixed with life, laughter, and love. But do you think about why you can do these things in our country? Primarily, it’s because of the sacrifices of our fallen sold...

From earliest times, God commanded His people to see their national home through His holy eyes. In other words, countries around the world are to follow the Lord. Of course, many don’t. Jeremiah 30:22 says, “So you will be my people, and I will be your God.” Many great civilizations have risen, but few last beyond a couple hundred years. Although history is debated, the foundations of America see...

We, as Americans, tend to relish our history—and most countries do. Famous eras and the glory of battle and all that. Americans love the beautiful land that we’ve been blessed with, as well. The Bible tells us the true source of our blessings. It points us to the One who made all things possible. Psalm 115:1 tells us, “Not to us, LORD, not to us, but to your name be the glory, because of your love...

Today in America, two million men and women serve in our armed forces. More than 200,000 of them are deployed to various points around the world. Joshua 1:9 reminds us, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” The Lord has told us directly not to be afraid. We aren’t even to be discouraged...

Have you ever wondered what it would have been like to be one of the original settlers in America? As a person leaving the safety of England to come to the New World and start over? Those people came here for religious freedom and risked it all. When they landed in New England, they literally put down roots as they built and planted the beginnings of an amazing experiment that is still ongoing. Co...

Identifying where our problems originate is one thing, but locating the Divine Healer is key in getting clear of obstacles in our lives.  At each mile marker in our life journeys, God is standing alongside the road, smiling at us, and holding out His strong hand to guide us. And from the indispensable wisdom of scripture to stories of human triumphs over tragedies, He is always there reminding us...

When fear takes control, God just crushes it. None of us are immune from feeling unsettled at times. Circumstances have a way of knocking us off balance. How we respond not only affects our lives, but those who are watching us. In the film “The Patriot,” a Colonial militia leader sees the British kidnap his son. Taking the two younger sons with him, they wait in ambush in the forest. One of the so...

No one is truly alone. Some people have many relatives and friends, others just a few. Occasionally, someone will have no real friends or family, but all of us interact with humans, and that over time has proven to be dicey.  The health of our relationships is one of the biggest factors in how we function each day.  Turmoil and chaos at home or work, or both, puts us in emotional quicksand. On the...

A really cool thing about God is that He has a solution for literally every situation, and that includes mental health.  We see this especially in the ministry of Jesus, who walked the land healing people of all sorts of terrible things. One day, He encountered a man driven insane by demons. Mark 5:15 says, “They came to Jesus and observed the man who had been demon-possessed sitting down, clothed...

Usually, when we’re looking for some kind of emotional lifeline to get us through the day, we only want to know what God can do for us. How do we get that peace of mind we desperately need? One component is simple obedience. At first, this sounds like a test that’s too hard. We need relief right now! Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing...