1. Introduction

There are many daily devotions out there and they all sound alike so-so but the following one is very unique and very high quality.  Its author is unknown and he just collected related Bible verses in each day and evening devotions daily for 365 days.  He did not make personal comments like most other devotions do typically but he just displayed abbreviated Bible verses which are relevant one another.  Then the reader can get the messages clearly in the group of related passages alone.  How nice!  Click upper right corner to open the document in the new window, then click File menu and download. 

2. Charity.   Believers are like apple of GOD'S eyes!  (Read item #3 just below; items A, #17, #19, #31, #36, and #42 under Theology menu; item #1 under Home menu )

When we born again believers read and meditate on scripture daily, we need to consider GOD'S love toward mankind in general (Joh 3:16), especially toward HIS own children, us.  HIS love toward us is unbelievably great and we ought to love HIM likewise.  I mentioned how we ought to love our neighbors before we can love HIM in the item number 17 under the Theology menu.  See item number one, Charity, under the Home menu.  King James Bible used the word 'charity' in so called the love chapter, 1Cor 13:13, while all other Bible versions used common word 'love.'  I mentioned that charity is a stronger and correct translation elsewhere in this website.

What I want to discuss here is that GOD considers us as apple of HIS eyes (Deu 32:10; Psa 17:8; Pro 7:2; Lam 2:18; Zec 2:8).  The implication of these verses is that we should love and consider our neighbors as apple of our eyes also; otherwise, we can not love or consider HIM likewise.   It appears very unrealistic for us, not to mention unbelieving, average sinners, to love them and to consider them as precious as our own eyes.  

To GOD, Israelites were said to be as precious as apple of HIS eyes during OT period (Lam 2:18; Isa 43:4; Zec 2:8).  Then both they and Gentiles, that is, everybody on earth, are nowadays more or less under NT.   Apostle Paul told Hebrew people to remember their brethren (neighbors) that are in bonds, "as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body."  (Heb 13:1-3)  His exhortation is not as strong as apple of one's eyes, yet it is a strong language too.

I call apostle John Mr. love simply because his gospel and epistles talk about love (charity) more than any other books in the Bible.  1Joh 4:7 ¶ Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.  1Joh 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 1Joh 4:9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 

When we born again believers are precious to GOD like apple of HIS eyes, should we not reach out lost sinners and bring them to GOD'S family as much and often as we can?  Now we must remind ourselves of HIS charity toward mankind and meditate on it as we read HIS words daily.

3. Loving our neighbors as ourselves.  Read item #2 above.

No New Testament book talks about GOD'S love toward HIS creation more than apostle John in the book of  gospel John and in his epistles.  He simply said that GOD is love (1Joh 4:8, 16).  The two most important New Testament commandments of GOD is to love HIM first "with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all they mind," and then to love our neighbors as ourselves (Mat 22:36-40).   The crux of Christianity is love and Jesus said that "all the law and prophets" hang on these two commandments.  See item number one, Charity, under the Home menu.  Also see item number 17 under the Theology menu.

Apostle John said that we can not love our GOD the Father who is invisible while we do not love our brother who is visible (i.e., neighbor) in 1Joh 4:20, If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?   

One must read this verse very carefully to avoid misinterpreting it.  He was talking about unbelievers who were born with evil spirit naturally.  They can not love both GOD the Father and neighbor.  See item #31 under Theology menu for further explanation.

This 1Joh 4:20 above shows a very crucial theology that hating one's brother is the same as not loving him at all, that is, there is no third or neutral position alternative to either loving and hating.  Nobody can say that he neither loves nor hates his brother (neighbor).  If he does not love him, he hates him even tough he might not show his hatred openly, that is, his hatred is reserved and unnoticeable. 

The more one loves (charity) GOD the Father, the more he loves (charity) his neighbor and family.  

Nobody can love (charity) his neighbor unless he loves (charity) GOD the Father in heaven first.  Now how much he loves (charity) HIM depends on how much he is filled with deep faith.  After he grows spiritually, he will have a closer relationship with HIM and love (charity) HIM more and more without limit.  Then his love (charity) toward his neighbor, family, or anybody will grow likewise.

Oh Father in heaven, we thank and love thee very much for sending us thy only begotten Son Jesus Christ to redeem us (Joh 3:16).  We shall express thy loving kindness to our neighbors.  Again we know that there is no greater commandments than loving thee dearly and our neighbors as ourselves.  We are looking forward to the day when we shall see thee face to face in heaven, what a glorious day that will be.  Amen

4. Ask GOD for wisdom   

Jas 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. 

Everybody wants to be wise but he can not get wisdom easily.  Luckily we born again believers can pray and ask our Father in heaven for it and this is a tremendous privilege which unbelievers, lost people can not have.  The fear of the LORD was said to be the beginning of the wisdom (Pro 1:7; Psa 111:10).  See items #10 and 11 under Holy Spirit menu.  King Solomon was said to ask for understanding heart when GOD said, Ask what I shall give thee, and then HE gave him a lot of wisdom (1Ki 3:5, 9, 11, 12).  As a result he wrote 3,000 proverbs (1Ki 4:29-32).

We see many foolish men who think themselves to be wise and are very proud.  They hurt themselves by making many unwise decisions or choices simply because they need to be wise and can not increase their wisdom.  See Holy Spirit is wisdom, item number 10 under the Holy Spirit menu.

Oh Father in heaven increase my wisdom so that I can make wise decisions and help other foolish neighbors.  THOU gavest it to me abundantly and now I can feel that I am wiser than before.  Praise the LORD!  Alleluia  Amen

5. Water and Holy Ghost Baptism

There are two modes of baptism, by submersion  or by Holy Ghost.  (I lamented that Presbyterian church people  practice it by sprinkling or wetting hair slightly with water simply because they misinterpreted Bible.  See UISC section under the Exegesis menu) 

The former was started by John the Baptist (Mat 3:5, 6) BEFORE Jesus died on the cross and the latter simply means receiving Holy Ghost AFTER HIS death on it in order that one is baptized by Holy Ghost if he is saved by the blood of the cross (Act 1:5, 2:1-4).  Receiving HIM, that is, being baptized by HIM simply means born again (Joh 3:3).  In other words, one is born spiritually  as opposed to physical birth (Joh 3:5, 6).

John the Baptist was born 6 months before Jesus Christ (Luk 1:26, 56, 57) and was sent by GOD the Father and he was a forerunner or messenger of Jesus Christ  (Mat 3:3; Mal 3:1).  His baptism by submersion indeed washed away one's sins and people came to him at Jordan river, confessed their sins, and got baptized.  Jesus was baptized by him also even though HE was GOD and a man, and therefore HE was sinless (Mat 3:13-17).   

Joh 1:31 And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.   Now it appears that John the Baptist started water baptism in Judea the very first time on earth.  It is very unlikely that other religions or tradition was doing it for a different or similar purpose before him.  Then one can wonder how in the world did he conceive it to symbolize death and resurrection for the remission of one’s sins after a man confessed of them, was submerged, and then rose up from the water?  Certainly there was no precedence, record, similitude, or tradition in the OT period for him to learn and then to begin it in the Jordan river under NT.  

The answer is that Holy Ghost taught him about baptism.   Let us look at Joh 1:33; And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.  Here the pronoun 'he' (but he that sent me to baptize....) points to GOD or Holy Ghost.  John the Baptist is saying that GOD or rather Holy Ghost taught or told him to baptize people with water for the remission of sins.  Only some Protestant, evangelical churches perform it and other religions or traditions might imitate baptism one way or another for whatever reason.

Baptism is a mandate from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (Mat 28:18-20) but it is not required for one's salvation; it is just a display or a public announcement of one's faith in HIM after being saved by HIS blood on the cross.  It is one of the two sacraments, the other being communion, for most evangelical churches.   Yes, people's sins were forgiven by water baptism during John the Baptist and very early church period in the book of Acts.  However our sins are forgiven by the blood of Christ rather and nobody can justify before GOD the Father by water baptism nowadays. 

6. Why KJV Only part II

I illustrated the advantage of focusing on one authentic Bible (KJV Bible) only instead of comparing with other corrupt, modern translations as many preachers or Bible students do in the Why KJV Bible Only section, item number 1 in the Table of Contents, under the Exegesis menu using few Bible verses from KJV.  In it I made my point very clear, I thought.

Now I'd like to approach it from a different angle, that is, staying with only one KJV Bible, I realized that I could do verse search in the computer a particular verse on a particular subject somewhat easily by trying and searching different words to locate the verse I was looking for from my past memory.

Let us look at two verses as follows:

2Co 9:12 For the administration of this service not only supplieth the want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God; 

Pr 19:17 ¶ He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will he pay him again. 

I was studying 2Cor chapter 9 and came to verse 12 which basically says that when Corinthian church people send support or money to poor Jerusalem church saints, they are saying 'thank you' to GOD the Father in heaven.  When a rich man supports a poor man financially, spiritually or whatever, he is expressing his thankfulness to GOD for the financial blessing he received from HIM and the poor praising and glorifying HIM also.  In other words, both giver and receiver end up with praising and glorifying HIM.  Alleluia!

Immediately my mind thought about Pro 19:17 above, which I read before but I did not know where it was in the Bible.  But I remembered the word 'lend' in the verse and the meaning of the verse clearly.  I did partial word match search to locate the verse using 'god lend' and it did not work but it could have been faster and direct if I had done using 'lord lend' basically.  

Are not they a good cross reference each other?   Pro 19:17 is so fascinating and unaware of by many believers that one can come up with a new theology with that verse alone!  In other words GOD will pay us back whatever good deeds we do to others in general.  Certainly HE will reward good people a lot more than anybody can imagine.  There are other relevant cross references (Pro 11:24, 25, 28:27; Mat 10:41, 42, 25:40, 45, and etc).

Here is another fascinating example which shows the great benefit to study Bible with KJV only.  Let us look at three verses, 

Jos 7:25 And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? the LORD shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones. De 13:9 But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. De 17:7 The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So thou shalt put the evil away from among you. 

These three verse are talking about stoning a guilt man to death.  In Jos 7:25, it says, "all Israel stoned him with stones."  When I was studying it, I thought about Deu 13:9 and 17:7 where they said that the witnesses should throw stones at him to death first and then the other people shall throw them at him.  If two or more witnesses were wrong, then his blood shall be upon their heads and other people shall be guiltless of executing an innocent man.  In Jos 7:25 above, it was a different case that everybody (all Israelites) stoned him to death in the beginning simply because Joshua located him out of many families among Israelites by casting lots as GOD told him, that is, HIS finger was involved with the search.  Then the possibility of executing an innocent man was zero, wasn't it?   Read entire Jos chapter 7.  Also he confessed his transgression and the material evidence was found afterwards.

Now I needed to find Deu 13:9 and 17:7 above in the OT but then I couldn't find them by flipping pages, could I?  When I did word search in the computer, I used 'throw,' 'stone,' or others without success but I remembered the word 'first' and it did.  This is the beauty of staying with one good or rather the best Bible version (KJV), very systematic, organized, simple, straight forward, and etc, isn't it?  I never compare it with other corrupt versions at all when I study Bible.  When you have the best and true GOD'S Word, why would you bother with other inferior versions.  Think this way, would not GOD provide us the only one true version if HE expects us to learn about HIM perfectly so to speak?  That is KJV!  Now you know the reason why I chose UISC Church as my new ministry name.

I thank thee Father in heaven.  Thou gavest me wisdom and understanding to stay with KJV Bible throughout my Bible study, and it turned out to be wonderful as thou knowest it.  Now I know by faith that thou wouldest give me an opportunity to start UISC Church soon or later according to thy timeline.  I will be diligent to spread the gospel and to preach the word faithfully.  I pray in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  Amen

7. Body, soul, and spirit  This was addressed in more detail in the item #3 under the Holy Spirit menu.

Mat 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 

1Th 5:23 ¶ And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Every baby is born with a devil spirit and is a sinner automatically since men inherited Adam's sin by birth (Rom 5:12-18).  If one is saved or born again (Joh 3:3) by accepting Jesus Christ as his personal saviour while living on earth, he replaces his devil spirit(s) with Holy Ghost. There is only one Holy Spirit or Ghost for the saved people while there are many devil spirits (Mar 5:8, 9) for unsaved people, and nobody can have both kinds of spirits together at the same time, which is nonsense or unthinkable. 

The situation as to what happens to either Holy Ghost (or Spirit) or to devil spirit(s) after death is different between saved and unsaved.  Holy Ghost leaves a saved person whose souls shall be sleeping in the grave until rapture.  Upon rapture they will receive spiritual body and receive back Holy Ghost, and they will meet Jesus Christ in the air so to speak.  See item number 9 under the Theology menu and item number 3 under the Holy Spirit menu.

The souls of unsaved people will not be sleeping in the grave after death since they do not deserve comfortable sleep.  Instead they shall receive spiritual body and shall be sent to hell immediately while devil spirit(s) shall be still present with them.  This idea comes from one of Christ’s parables so called ‘A rich man and beggar Lazarus’ in Luk 16:19-31.  This must be a real story instead of an illustration since real names were used.  They shall suffer there for 1,000 years or more, that is, past future 1,000-year Christ kingdom (Rev 20:4) and then they shall stand before the white throne of judgment to determine if they shall be sent to lake or fire (second death) forever (Rev 20:11-15).  Read item number 3 under the Holy Spirit menu, and items 11 and 23 under the Theology menu.  

One's soul shall never die but it is his permanent identity unto eternity into either in heaven or in hell and lake of fire.  Only men have this permanent, never dying identity, that is, men only have second and eternal life after the common first death on earth in either place because all other animate creatures’ life ends once for all after they die on earth.

Now who wants to go to hell and lake of fire, and his soul to get tormented eternally?  Nevertheless sinners on earth are dying without salvation every moment or second.  Yes, right now the souls of sinners are dying and falling into hell constantly!  

Mat 16:26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? 

Oh Father in heaven, thou wouldest not want us to go to hell by sending Jesus Christ to die on the cross to redeem our souls.  Satan is tempting and leading men away from the cross day and night.  Some people are saved and some are not.  Rescue the perishing!    Amen.

  8. Read the Bible to know about GOD more intimately

As a man becomes a born again believer after either accepting Holy Ghost (Joh 3:3) who then leads him to believe in Son Christ and GOD the Father or after accepting Christ as his personal saviour (Joh 3:16) and then receives Holy Ghost and GOD the Father, he is a baby spiritually and needs to grow spiritually, that is, in faith.  Once he receives either ONE, he will receive the other TWO (Holy Spirit or Christ, and GOD the Father) concurrently simply because Trinity works as one body and is one (1Joh 5:7, 8), that is, nobody can separate them or deal with one, two, or three of them separately.   One can access one body Trinity through Holy Ghost or Son Christ only.  Read Joh 14:6, 6:44.

Now after a man becomes born again, he is a baby spiritually and needs to grow progressively and in faith.  Knowing about Trinity (GOD the Father, Son Christ, and Holy Ghost) more and more through reading Bible or listening to sermons is the only way probably (Rom 10:17).  In other words, increasing one's faith in Trinity can come by either of them.  Increasing one's faith simply means growing spiritually; they mean the same thing.   Read the nice definition of faith in Heb 11:1.

1Pe 2:2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

Apostle Peter was telling newly born again Hebrews who were sojourners living abroad outside Judea (1Pe 1:17) to read and study word of GOD to grow spiritually.  Now there was no Bible back then obviously and it is not clear what kind of book or writing they were reading but there must have been some sort of sacred book or writing.

So the idea is very straight forward and simple that we born again believers nowadays need to increase our faith in Trinity by knowing about it more intimately through reading Bible.   The more we know about HIM by reading it, the stronger faith we should have, the more intimate relationship we will establish with HIM, the more mature born again believers we can be, and etc.   Certainly there must be other ways to increase our faith beside reading it but the bottom line is that we all strive to grow spiritually and to obey Christ's commandments to spread gospel to save lost souls and to love our Father in heaven first and then our neighbors as ourselves (Mat 22:37-40, 28:18-20).  Amen