Kerusso Daily Devotional

Jenna stopped in her tracks, sighing in frustration as she bent down to pick yet another rock out of her shoe.    “Why on earth am I suddenly picking up rocks every time I walk the dog,” she wondered.   They finished their usual route, and at home, Jenna slipped off her shoes and discovered the problem: she’d worn those old slip-ons for so long that she wore a hole right through the soles of both...

Truett burst through the front door with exciting news one afternoon, anxious to share his latest find. “Mom! I found a praying mantis. Can you believe it! They’re pretty rare around here.”   It was certainly one of the biggest bugs they’d seen in the fields around their home. The beautiful emerald green insect crawled from hand to hand, curious about its new environment.   Considered a symbol of...

Humans were built for language and communication.   It's one of the bits of creative genius God used when He formed His highest creation. And apart from regular communication, whether it's the written word or verbal, we have a great gift from a loving God: prayer. And that's what we're talking about this week in a series we're calling, Prayer 101.   Prayer is an intensely...

1 Peter 5:6–7 says, “Humble yourselves, then, under God’s mighty hand, so that he will lift you up in his own good time. Leave all your worries with him, because he cares for you.”   These two short verses tell us several things: One - if we submit to God’s power by acknowledging we can’t solve our problems, He is strong enough to intervene and bring about the outcome we really want.   Second, He...

Welcome to prayer 101, the big question for today is how do you develop a prayer life?     The answer to how we develop a healthy prayer life is really not that complicated. It's all about choice. We can learn to pray first by reading scripture and taking notice of the hundreds of prayers offered by believers just like us. We can also talk with veterans of prayer in our own life, those who ar...

Our greatest example of kindness and compassion is our Heavenly Father.   God’s Word, the Bible, is filled with examples of His loving-kindness, His grace, His mercy, His faithfulness...the Lord’s love for us is infinite and eternal, and His example is what we should strive to embody as we interact and react to the people around us.   Lamentations 3:22–23 says, “Because of the Lord’s great love we...

How many of us would feed a hungry stranger with the last crust of bread left in the house?   The prophet Elijah received a prophecy that the land would suffer a years-long drought, and this message from God had come to pass. The Lord sent him to a ravine east of the Jordan River where He sent ravens with bread and meat in the morning and in the evening, and Elijah could drink from a brook, but ev...

When God asks us to love our neighbor as ourselves, what exactly does He mean?   In Luke 10 verses 25–37, Jesus shares the Parable of the Good Samaritan to illustrate what it means to love our neighbors the way Jesus loves us.   “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest...

How much can one person take, and still choose to offer kindness?   In Genesis Chapter 37, verses 12–36, 17-year-old Joseph is sent by his father to visit his brothers, who were tending the family’s flock of sheep in the countryside.   Rather than the friendly check-in he expected, Joseph’s brothers initially plotted to kill him out of jealousy, but instead sold him into slavery to a group of Ishm...

Carissa was having one of those days. Instead of hitting the snooze button on her alarm clock, she had turned it off. Now the kids were late for school, she was late for work, and the tone for the day was one mad rush — emphasis on the mad.    As the day wore on, she thought about her impatience and frustration with her children as everyone got dressed and grabbed a granola bar on the way out the...

You’ve probably heard of the Ingalls family, or even met some of the clan through the Little House on the Prairie television series, or the beloved children’s books about pioneer life in the 1860s by author Laura Ingalls Wilder.   The story of the Ingalls family is inspiring, whether you watch it or read it. The fun and camaraderie shared by Charles, Caroline, Mary, Laura, and little Carrie is hea...

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were three young men from Judah who found themselves in a heated situation.   They were brought into the court of King Nebuchadnezzar II, and ordered to bow before the king’s golden image. The alternative was a one-way ticket to the fiery furnace.   The king’s command would have been easy for these guys to follow, but their own King of Kings had already commanded th...

Are you a person that has walked away from your faith? Maybe you believed once, very much, but it faded over time. Maybe you accepted the promises of God for a little while, but then something else caught your eye.   That’s not uncommon. Starting out on fire for God and then becoming weary is something many of us have dealt with. To use a flying analogy for our talk today, sometimes your flight of...

Did you know God’s Word is indestructible?   Many ancient books have been lost to history. Others sit still buried under the sands of the Middle East. But after thousands of years, the Bible is more widely read than ever.   Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges t...

Have you ever had the pleasure of waking up in a cozy cabin…after you’ve let the fire go out from the night before? If you don’t get out of bed and put more wood in that furnace, the squirrels or raccoons aren’t going to do it for you!   Much more serious is the tendency to get lazy about the fire inside us to share the love of Christ. After so many years of being a Christian—especially living in...

Celebrated songwriter Fanny Crosby wrote over 9,000 hymns in her lifetime, often writing as many as 6 or 7 songs a day. Despite being blind from infancy, she also played harp, piano, guitar, and other instruments, as well as singing soprano. She wrote the lyrics to many well-known hymns and while she did compose music to accompany a few of her songs, she partnered with many talented composers to w...

How would you feel, if you suddenly lost the gifts so many of us take for granted, such as vision, hearing, or the ability to walk?   Fanny Crosby was struck blind at just 6 weeks of age, but God had a plan for her. She was raised by her mother and grandmother after her father’s death when she was about 6 months old, and although she grew up poor, she was blessed to attend an excellent school for...

Fanny Crosby was a prolific songwriter and poet born in 1820, and she overcame challenges including blindness and poverty from an early age — but she didn’t allow her disability, or her circumstances, to hold her back.   As a Christian, Fanny understood the importance of looking forward. When a preacher once remarked that it was a pity Fanny could not see because she had been given so many other g...

Francis was just 6 weeks old when she became ill in the spring of 1820. The family doctor was out of town, and a charlatan pretending to be a doctor prescribed a treatment that rendered the baby completely blind, although she recovered from the initial illness. A few months later, her father died, and her mother went to work as a maid to support the family. She was raised by her grandmother, a dev...

Who is the author of your story? Is it your parents, or maybe a grandparent or special mentor who had a hand in raising you? Maybe your best friend gets some of the credit, sharing in adventures the two of you recall with laughter every time you’re together. Or perhaps your spouse is a co-author of your personal story, as you make decisions together that honor your partnership, or help your family...

One of the richest gifts God has given us is healthy relationships.   A marriage in balance, friends who mutually respect each other, and most of all a strong “God connection” can be the ticket to a healthy, whole life. The full life Jesus spoke about!   Hebrews 10:24–25 says, “And let us consider how to spur one another to love and to good works. Let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves tog...

Geraldine Mock became the first woman to fly around the world in 1964. Landing for a short stop in Saudi Arabia, she watched as a man approached her plane. When he saw her, he shouted to his friends that this was no man.   They applauded!   Jerrie Mock’s steadiness at the wheel, and in her encounters on the ground, were the very picture of self-control. Her journey was wildly successful.   Titus 2...

Fighting one day in the tough Iraqi city of Fallujah, a Marine sergeant decided to put himself at risk in order to get a frightened family to safety. He stepped into a courtyard and spoke quietly for a few minutes with the father. He took time to make sure the kids had water, and the toys his men gave them.   Then it was back to the war.   Gentleness can be misunderstood. Too often we think, for e...

Emma used her hand to brush her husband’s white hair from his forehead…Edgar was near death.   Their marriage had been happy, and now she was saying goodbye. The nursing staff talked about the love between the two. Only three days after Edgar went into eternity, Emma joined him.   The Bible often uses marriage as a backdrop for what God has done for us. We know that in earthly marriages, it’s impo...

It has been said that in the Fruit of the Spirit list, all of them collectively practically define the nature of Christ. Even David the shepherd knew his Messiah was coming. Remember what he said about following his loving God? “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life!”   We instinctively know what goodness is. It is a kind touch, a gentle word, a gift that was unexpected....