Kerusso Daily Devotional

Hers is the greatest motherhood story of all time. You know who she is.   Magnificent Mary!   Her story has been told many times, but how grateful we are that it’s recorded in Scripture. Whatever God’s reasons for choosing this particular woman to give birth to Jesus, we know that she must have loved the Lord with all her heart.   And just think how her head and heart must have been spinning when...

Have you ever wondered what it would have been like to be close to Jesus when He was on the earth? It would have been amazing to be in His inner circle.   We know of a remarkable woman, a family member, who would have been able to be around to watch the most amazing life unfold.   Her name was Elizabeth. An aunt of Jesus.   We read in Luke that everyone thought that the time for Elizabeth to becom...

Are you a woman blessed with the gift of a wonderful mother-in-law? We can hardly think of a more important relationship. Through the ages, this mentoring friendship has sealed families and nurtured them. Likewise, we easily see the pain inflicted when this relationship isn’t good.   In the Old Testament, we read of a really remarkable mother-in-law. She showed great kindness to a young woman at j...

We don’t even know her name, but we know what she did.   Let’s just say there was great strength in her household!   Known only as the wife of Manoah, from the Israelite tribe of Dan, this godly woman was unable to have children. But then, in a kind of foreshadowing of another, more famous visit by an angel hundreds of years later, she was told by the Angel of the Lord that she would become pregna...

  She’s not well known even though she’s, you know, in the Bible.   But Jochebed…who’s heard of her? Raise your hands.   This great woman deserves a bigger story in our culture, because she modeled what it means to act with bravery, and to value all life.   Exodus 2:3 says, “But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed th...

Of all the gifts God gives His children, joy is perhaps the one closest to heaven on earth.   Who isn’t aware just how wonderful it feels to experience true joy? It is as if the Lord has freed a prisoner.   When American POWs returned from captivity in Vietnam, the looks on their faces as they emerged from the planes carrying them to freedom…well, no one will ever forget that!   Psalm 16:9 says, “...

Have you ever been fooled by someone? Doesn’t feel good, does it?   But the absolute worst is when we fool ourselves. We try to manage some problem on our own, or analyze why our boss is so mean.   But the Bible has a better way of thinking about it.   Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”   We have to do two things here: give total cont...

Gwen closed her eyes and didn’t dare to even breathe. Japanese troops were right outside her house, looking for her and other missionaries.   It was World War 2, and American forces in the Philippines were nearby. Just when Gwen and her friends thought someone would throw open the trapdoor to their basement hiding place, loud voices began getting dimmer.   The enemy troops were distracted, and lef...

When trouble is on the horizon, it can be hard to trust in God’s promises, and to believe He has a plan for us.   The book of Judges in the Old Testament gives us an awesome example of trusting God in the story of Gideon.   God called Gideon to lead Israel into battle with the Midianites, who had a sizable army of 135,000 men. Gideon gathered an army of 32,000 men to battle with the Midianites, bu...

Life is a process. We know that if we’ve lived very long at all. And this week, we’re talking about the process of trusting God.   John 16:24 says, “Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.”   Could Jesus meet our needs by just giving us something instantly? Of course. He made everything! And sometimes He does that; the miracles...

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...

Do you get tired of being alone or afraid? Have you had enough of feeling like you can’t take any more stress? If you’re honest with yourself, there are times when you think you’re just going to lose it.   The cares of this world can be like that. You stress about not having enough money each month just to pay your bills. You can’t sleep at night because your mind is racing, striving to create a w...

Standing in the door of the plane, with a fierce wind whipping his whole body, Curtis wondered why he’d volunteered for the paratroopers.   It was glamorous, they said.   It’ll make a man out of you, they said.   Shutting his eyes, Curtis prayed the most honest prayer of his life. He stretched out his hands and took a step…   Lamentations 3:25–26 says, “The Lord is good to those whose hope is in h...

Carl loved working on his farm. He loved the solitude and sense of accomplishment.   One day though, working alone, he was injured severely. In fact, if he didn’t get to the hospital, he would likely die.   So, he banged the door of his old pickup shut and took off. He pulled into the hospital parking lot and lost what little consciousness he had.   Waking up 24 hours later after surgery, he reali...

Do you like scary movies? Is an evening spent looking through your fingers appealing to you?   It is to a lot of people. Some of us really like to be scared!   But hopefully, that doesn’t translate to real life. Screaming in a dark theatre can actually be fun, but you don’t want to live a life of fear.   Psalm 23:4 tells us, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fea...

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...

As followers of Jesus, we are meant to be witnesses. And Christ’s majesty and power are meant to blanket our world.   He is intimately aware of you, and where you are in life.   Isaiah 60:1 says, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.”   When we trust Christ—when we believe the simple Gospel—we are called to get in the game. Sitting on such good news does...

Think of what Jesus was asking of His followers.   He had just risen from the dead. That doesn’t happen every day.   His ministry had been destroyed, so they thought. He wasn’t coming back. But then He did. Only days after being killed on a brutal Roman cross, Jesus was standing in front of his friends, looking very much alive. And He was telling them their futures were dicey.   Mark 16:15 says, “...

Table salt today is so common, it becomes another thing we take for granted. You go to the store, pick a cylinder or jar of salt off the shelf, then go home. You don’t even think about it.   Now, consider that 1,000 and more years ago, if a person wanted to use salt on his dinner, this required some prior work. A lot of work! The Romans boiled seawater in huge, lead-lined pans. So valuable was sal...

Defending the faith can sometimes be a subjective thing. As examples of extremes, we have seen the Crusades, and the modern form is perhaps an aggressive “pitch” to someone who isn’t a believer.   The thing is, it’s great to be zealous for our faith, but let’s also be disciplined. We don’t want to alienate a person who might otherwise listen. To put it simply: an angry Christian is usually a lonel...

Are you the kind of person everyone looks at and assumes you are strong, and you have it all together?   You too, huh?   Many of us look fine on the outside, but the human condition is often much different on the inside.   Proverbs 31:25 says this of a godly woman: “She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.”   As believers, we can laugh in the midst of struggle b...

Do you remember the last time you laughed? Do you remember the last time you laughed from sheer joy?   Many of us don’t. The weight of life presses down on us…it weakens us.   Proverbs 31:25 says this of a godly woman: “She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.”   Did you know that God means for you to be strong? He wants you to have dignity. You are a child of t...

Human kindness is healing for the soul.   A viral video made the national news: a police officer cut the hair of a prisoner being released so that he could go on a job interview. It was one of those inspiring random acts of kindness that we love to hear about.   Proverbs 31:26 says, “She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.”   The thing that made Jesus stand...

China in the 19th century was as remote and mysterious a place as has ever existed. Its countless villages, mountains, and hidden places were a challenge for inhabitants.   Imagine what it was like for a small Christian woman from Virginia!   Charlotte Moon, who went by the name that would become famous, “Lottie,” was a missionary to the Asian country for 40 years.   Proverbs 31:25 says this of a...

Some scholars have believed that the suffering Job of the Bible was sort of a primate thinker who didn’t really understand much about the life beyond this one.   But that isn’t true.   Job 33:25–26 says, “Let their flesh be renewed like a child’s; let them be restored as in the days of their youth’—then that person can pray to God and find favor with him, they will see God’s face and shout for joy...