Walk in Wisdom
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These daily devotionals are written to help you remain rooted and grounded in God's Word each day. We have one devotional for each weekday, and one for the weekend.
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Latest Devotional
Get Your Hard Hat Ready
Numbers 5:5-7
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel, When a man or woman commits any of the sins that people commit by breaking faith with the LORD, and that person realizes his guilt, he shall confess his sin that he has committed. And he shall make full restitution for his wrong, adding a fifth to it and giving it to him to whom he did the wrong.”We encountered this law already when reflecting on Leviticus 6, but what strikes me here on second reading is the convicting principle that repentance and restitution are synonymous. Just as faith without works is dead according to the apostle James, so too confession without reparation is dead.
Have you ever heard a pastor distinguish confession from repentance by saying something like, “Confession is saying ‘sorry,’ but repentance is turning from sin and going the opposite way?” That is, any drunkard can realize his sin before God and cry out in conviction, “I’m sorry for running to the bottle again!”, but the repentant drunkard takes the much harder step of overcoming his alcoholism. Yet Numbers 5:5-7 goes even further in its definition. Here, the fundamental act of repenting isn’t just turning from evil and pressing onward but going backward to those who’ve been harmed and providing compensation. In other words, repentance builds back the doors of the past that sin tore down. It doesn’t just close the door on the past and embrace a brighter future.
Think of it like this: if you start a campfire that catches wind and burns your neighbor’s house down, is it enough to say, “I’m sorry! I’ll never, ever start fires again!”, and then tear down your firepit to prove your seriousness? Or should you take off work the next week, or cancel the vacation, and help your neighbor rebuild? And if you hurt your wife with harsh words in an argument, is it enough to apologize and promise to never use those words again? Or should you take time to repair the damage, lifting her up with gentle words, going above and beyond to show her how precious she really is to you?
Take time today to write a letter or make a phone call or send some money or pick up a hammer and nails and start repairing what you, by your sin, have broken.
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Blue Collar Cloth
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Sabbath Psalm (Revision of Fanny Crosby’s hymn ‘All the Way My Savior Leads Me’)
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Beyond the Blue
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A Most Sacred Order
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Awaiting the Dawn
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Tribal Standards
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Count Me In
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Hallelujah!
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Servant Status
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Enduring Love
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Don’t Light the Fuse!
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The Last Word
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Don’t Wait . . . Sing Now!
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God Knows Best
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Gunning for Bear
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Parental Endowment
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Steadfast, Immovable
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Paying Penance?
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Stone-Blind
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Going the Extra Mile
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A Priceless Pearl
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Revenge Denied
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Trying Your Patience
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By Faith, Not by Sight
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Begging Your Pardon
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Lift That Weight!
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Keep Swinging
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The Heavens Declare
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Let’s Go Fishing!
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Parking Space #23
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Measureless Grace
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No Man Left Behind
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Completing the Puzzle
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Skeletons in the Closet
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Deposits and Investments
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Piercing the Darkness
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You’re on Candid Camera!
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Dry Bones
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Without Love
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Father Knows Best
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Putting on the Dog
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The Dreaded Word: Practice!
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Walking in the Spirit
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Down Memory Lane
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The Stops of a Good Man
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Truly Good News
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The Good Shepherd
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People of the Word
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Imitating Christ
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The One Left Standing
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Invisibly Involved
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“Not Guilty!”
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But You, O Lord . . .
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God Uses Broken Things
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Then Comes the Good Part!
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Go to God
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Light Up the Runway!
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Faith is . . .
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I Believe I Will
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Under Evaluation
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Minority Rule
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Sabbath Psalm (Adapted from Albert B. Simpson’s hymn, ‘Yesterday, Today, Forever’)
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The Melody of Raindrops
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Inverse Psychology
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Right Between the Eyes
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Bon Appetit
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Our Word
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Sabbath Psalm (Revision of Jane C. Bonar’s hymn, ‘Fade, Fade, Each Earthly Joy’)
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Dirt in the Divine
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Open Your Eyes!
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Gray Hair and Long Branches
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A Matter of Trust
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A Begrudging Virtue
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Sabbath Psalm (Revision of William T. Sleeper’s hymn, ‘Jesus, I Come’)
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The Least of These
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Remedial Purity
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Mad Goat Disease
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Joyful Sorrow…And Other Paradoxes
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Seeing Double
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Sabbath Psalm (Revision of John M. Neale’s hymn ‘Art Thou Weary?’)
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Cleaning House
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The Buck Stops With You
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The Seminal Covenant
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Word from our Land-LORD
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Stop the Spread
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Sabbath Psalm (From Lidie Edmunds hymn, ‘My Faith Has Found a Resting Place’)
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A Less-Than-Perfect Conception
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Altars and Alterations
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The City Center
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Hold Your Peace
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Fight the Tide
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Sabbath Psalm (Revised from Dora Greenwell’s hymn, ‘My Savior’)
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Hearts Ablaze
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The Glory in the Commandment
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New Dawn
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The Big Six
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The Hermeneutic of Hindsight
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Sabbath Psalm (A revision of Horatius Bonar’s hymn ‘Here, O My Lord, I See You Face to Face’)
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Earth-Shattering Faith