The Family of a Royal Priesthood Ministries Incorporated

07/06/2025

07/06/2025

LESSONS FROM AUTHORITIES
Romans 5:3-4

As our children grow, they will experience conflicts with various authorities in their lives. It could be a teacher who singled them out for unfair treatment. It might be a coach who shows favoritism to undeserving players. Perhaps they have a boss who is overly critical and demanding.

What can we do to help our children mature and grow in the midst of these experiences? Often, our first reaction is to try to fix the problem. While there may be instances when our intervention is necessary, this approach usually doesn't equip them to address future conflicts on their own.

Instead of offering suggestions, criticism, or advice, listen as your kids describe their frustrations. Let them know you have heard them by reflecting their thoughts and feelings back to them. Then encourage them to solve the problem by asking, "What do you think you're going to do?" Trust God to work through the situation by going to Him in prayer together.

God will teach our kids valuable life lessons through dealing with the authorities in their lives.

07/06/2025

Ezra 3:11 (NKJV) And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the LORD: "For He is good, For His mercy endures forever toward Israel." Then all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.

I am always amazed at people that can shout and scream at football games, and every other sporting event, but when they come to church, they are so quiet and look at other people who are praising God loudly like they are crazy. Yet when I look into the Bible, I see that God is happy when we shout and celebrate for Him!

We see in this verse that after the people laid the foundation to the temple, they got excited and they rejoiced! Every time we build something new for the Kingdom of God, we need to get excited too! Maybe it is a new facility at our home church, or a work overseas. Whatever it might be, we need to shout and praise God, because it goes against everything that the devil does not want to see done.

You see, the devil does not rejoice when we put an addition on a church. He does not get excited when we put a roof on a church overseas. No, he does not want the Kingdom of God to spread in our community or around the world. He wants Hollywood to spread, and sports to spread, and everything else that has no eternal value.

So make a decision that when you go to church, or when you hear of a new church plant going on, you rejoice and celebrate that God is on the move, and that people are going to be saved. Rejoice that lives and marriages will be restored, and that people will receive eternal life.

Remember, when Jesus is lifted up, He will draw all people onto Himself. So let us celebrate today that God’s Kingdom is on the move, and that we serve the One and only true God. Let us rejoice that our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and that we will be in His presence soon, and we have the opportunity to bring many with us to heaven!

CONFESSION: Today, I choose to rejoice in my Father God, because His Kingdom is moving on this earth. Today, I rejoice because God is for me.

06/06/2025

Believing the Best
Matthew 12:34

The person who is close to God thinks positive, uplifting, edifying thoughts about other people as well as about himself and his own circumstances.

You exhort others with your words only after you have first had kind thoughts about that individual. Remember that whatever is in your heart will come out of your mouth (Matthew 12:34). Thoughts and words are containers or weapons for carrying creative or destructive power (Proverbs 18:21). This is why it is so important to do some “love thinking” on purpose.

I encourage you to send thoughts of love toward other people. Speak words of encouragement. Come alongside others and urge them to press forward in their spiritual life. Speak words that make others feel better and that encourage and strengthen them.

Everyone has enough problems already. We don’t need to add to their troubles by tearing them down. We can build up one another in love (1 Thessalonians 5:11). Love always believes the best of everyone (1 Corinthians 13:7).

We are living in obedience to the Word of God when our thoughts, actions, and attitudes line up with what it says.

06/06/2025

The Ultimate Do-Over
Titus 3:4-7

If you ever get a second chance in life for something you’ve got to go all the way.

Remember when you were young and you were playing four-square or something like that? Someone hit the ball, you couldn’t tell whether it was in or out, and you argued about it, and finally someone would say, “Let’s just do a do-over!” It is as though the thing you just did never happened, and you get to do it all over again.

If we are born again, we are part of the ultimate “do-over” because we’ve been “regenerated.” Yeah, I know that sounds really theological and deep, but it’s really simple. The etymology of the word is this: The prefix re- means “to do something again;” generate means “to bring into existence.” So, put them together and “Presto!” You get a second beginning, new existence, an opportunity to do it over.

And that’s a good thing, because the first go-around was a real mess:
At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. (Titus 3:3)
Yeah, I would say we needed the “ultimate do-over!”

But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:4-7, NASB)

Is there anything better than a second chance?

PRAYER:
Jesus, thank You for a second chance. By the power of Your Spirit, by the truth of Your Word, I want to make the most of the regeneration I have been given through You. Let me live in the truth of this regeneration. Let me live as a new creation in You! Amen!

06/06/2025

For Reals
John 3:4-5

What the caterpillar calls the end, the rest of the world calls a butterfly.

Dottie liked her drinks and she was at the end. Like so many others, she looked for the relief from life’s problems at the bottom of an empty bottle. Of course, relief was always temporary. Drink after drink, the problems only intensified until the addiction could not be controlled. Her marriage was on the skids and life was coming apart at the seams.

She had three beautiful children, yet thought, You know what? Maybe if we had another kid, our marriage will get better. So, they had a fourth child, a daughter. Bad idea. Their marriage got worse and worse. When the baby girl was about eight months old, they decided to separate and divorce.

For years Dottie tried to find truth. In college she studied all the great religions of the world. Nothing resonated. Shortly before the divorce was final, she was sitting on the porch of her empty house one quiet night. She turned on her old black-and-white TV and adjusted the bent coat-hanger antenna as she turned the channels.

Click, click, click… She stopped when she heard the voice of a young man with a soft southern drawl speaking of new life, the “good news” that she could be “born again.” It resonated.

That night, Dottie bowed her knee to Jesus Christ. That was more than forty years ago, but if you were to run into her today, you would swear she met Jesus yesterday. A life transformed from the inside out, she is a beautiful example to me of what it means to be “in Christ.”

Are stories like this for real? All I can say is that this one sure is for me. Dottie became a new person in Christ and today she is one of my closest, most respected friends. Her marriage was given new life as well.

And their eight-month-old daughter? She grew up and became the wife of my best friend.

PRAYER:
Jesus, I thank You that I am in You. Your Word says that if I am in You, I am a new creature, born again through the birth of my spirit through Your Spirit. I bend the knee to You now, surrendering all to You, releasing all to You, resting in You. I thank You for Your complete forgiveness and permanent presence. Live through me today to do what only You can do. Amen.

06/06/2025

His Grace Redeemed Me
Romans 3:23-24

From the day I gave my life to Christ, I want to do more than just believe. I want to serve Him in everything I say and do. This doesn’t mean that I live a perfect life. But I seek to slowly and steadily change the way I live, speak and act, so that I can be more like Him (Romans 12:1-2).
A popular saying is, ‘We’re only human.’ It is both a proclamation and an understanding that people fail often and are imperfect.
I’ve felt at times that I’ve been too far from God’s forgiveness. Such feelings emerge from the reality of sin in every human’s life. Without ‘the redemption that is in Christ Jesus’, we can do nothing but sin (Romans 14:23). This forces us to a life of always falling short of the glory of God.
But here’s the good news: we are raised from a place of condemnation to a place of adoption. And as we confess our sins, God is faithful to forgive and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
It is as if we were on the stand on trial and everyone knew, beyond a shadow of doubt, that we were guilty. But a marvelous thing occurred at the cross. Rather than sending us to pay the penalty for our crime, Jesus took our place and we were declared guilt free and justified. Instead of being sentenced to death, we have the gift of new life and can enjoy every blessing in Christ. This includes eternal salvation! Think about the thief, who was crucified alongside Jesus. Despite the life he lived, he was granted eternal life.
This is the beautiful scandal of the cross, that the just would take the place of the unjust (1 Peter 3:18). This is best referred to as the scandal of grace.

Declaration
Thank You, Jesus, for Your grace that has rescued and ransomed me. Your grace is truly enough for me!

06/06/2025

Glory in All Things
1 Corinthians 10:31

Beware of allowing yourself to think that the shallow aspects of life are all not ordained by God. They are ordained by Him equally as much as the profound.
A famous athlete in America hated warming up before his training. One day, he pulled a muscle so badly he had to be in bed for days. Then he remembered his coach’s advice and changed for the better. The coach always said, “You not only represent the country, but also represent me.” Similarly, we not only represent the kingdom of God, but God Himself. We are His ambassadors on this earth. Our very life must bring glory to His name. Beware of posing as a profound person - God Himself became a baby (to fulfil His plan for mankind).
To be shallow is not a sign of being sinful nor is shallowness an indication that there is no depth in your life at all. Every ocean has a shore. Even the shallow things of life such as eating and drinking, walking and talking are ordained by God. We are safe guarded by the shallow things of life. There are times we become so pompous and proud that we do not want to be mixing about anymore. We consider ourselves superior. The Supreme God fellowshipped with Adam and Eve, Jesus ate and drank with His disciples and the people. So, shouldn’t we be more like our Lord and reach out to the ‘least’, loving the ‘drop outs’ of life and inviting them to the same place of worship we go to?
The Church is not made up of a set of perfect people, but it is a set of sinners, saved by a Savior who has got them on the right track and are now in turn leading others to Christ.

Prayer
Lord, help me not to think more about myself but about others, and consider others better than myself, bringing glory to Your name. Amen.