Matthew 22:36-40, " Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

Joshua 4:22-24, "Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land. For the LORD your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red sea, which he dried up from before us, until we were gone over: That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the LORD your God for ever."

I pray that you are looking forward to this day which the Lord has made for His glory. We have a great opportunity before us today to bring glory to Him. May we be faithful to point others to the Lord.

Today's devotional thought is from Acts 28; and really, it comes from just verse 1. Acts is one of my favorite books of the Bible (besides the other 65) and I have read this passage hundreds of times. But something in Acts 28:1 caught my attention. It is the word "escaped". The verse starts out by saying "And when they were escaped, ..." Normally, escaped is not a major word. We use it often in today's language and know that it means "to break free from confinement or control." It really is not that significant of a word unless, of course, you stop to study it as a Bible word and not as a regular English word. I am afraid that I have read so many Bible words assuming I know what they mean instead of actually knowing what they mean. I wonder how many times I have missed out on the great meaning of a passage because I quickly read over a word.

Think back to a time in your life when someone went so above and beyond what was expected that you were truly overwhelmed with their graciousness and kindness. For many of us, there have been several times in our lives when this was true: maybe someone helped you deal with significant grief; maybe a stranger stopped on the side of the road to offer you assistance; or maybe a neighbor demonstrated a gesture of true kindness and self-sacrifice.

Acts 8:26-39

I hope you are having a great day thus far and have taken time to read the Scripture passage for this devotional - that is where the real substance is. The power to change your life and grow you closer to Jesus is in the Word of God. If you do not read the rest of this devotional, but spend time with God in reading your Bible, the goal of this time has been accomplished.