Daily Devotions

Today’s Bible reading is Acts chapter 5

(Read the entire New Testament in 2014 by reading only one chapter each day)

The church in Acts chapter five was experiencing a great outpouring of God’s Spirit. Revival fires were burning and as a result it was too hot for hypocrites! No one likes a hypocrite. Occasionally when I invite someone to church they will say to me, “I don’t like church because of all the hypocrites.” My response is, “Well you will like Jesus because He dealt with the hypocrites.” God did not tolerate the hypocrisy of Ananias and Sapphira. They pretended to be more spiritual than they really were, and were willing to deceive others and even lie to God. The result was they both fell dead. God’s swift and certain judgment speaks volumes. What if God dealt with our sin the way He dealt with the sin of Ananias and Sapphira? How many of us would live through the day if we got what we deserve? It’s only by God’s grace that we don’t die as a result of our duplicity. We must learn to feel about our sin the way God feels about it. God knows us and He sees through our many facades. We cannot fool God and there is no sense in our playing church. There is a sin unto death. Let’s be real with ourselves and God unless we fall into the trap of hypocrisy.

Prayer: “Dear Jesus, forgive our hypocrisy, thank You for Your mercy and for not giving us what we deserve. Heal us of any pretense, and deliver us from hypocrisy. In Jesus name. Amen”

Randy J. McPheron