Daily Devotional For Monday, August 18, 2025
DISCLAIMER: Good morning folks. This was supposed to be Sunday's devotional but for some reason it did not post. I noticed that when I uploaded it, it was taking some time to post. I always check to make sure it posts but I was going over Sunday's sermon and just fogot to do that. If you were wondering, "Where is Sunday's devotional?", I apologize for that. This is why it begins the way it does mentioning going to worship. So, hopefully, you went yesterday to worship and praised the Lord. So, thank you taking the time to read this and apply it to your life.
Good morning Southside. I hope all of you are going to go worship with others today to worship the King of kings and Lord of lords. The New Testament was written in a time when being a Christian would cost you your life. With Nero being the emperor, and his hatred of Christians, He made it his mission to hunt down Christians as a predator does a prey. He set Rome on fire and blamed Christians for it to turn Romans in Rome against them. For sport, he had Christians rounded up and rolled them in tar and pitch. While the games were going on in the colosseum, he had them lit to provide light for it (since they claimed that Jesus said they were the light of the world. These Christians died as martyrs because they were not ashamed of Christ, their faith nor the lives they lived.
This is why we need to consider Jesus’ words in Mark 8:38,” If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels” (NLT). Shame is something everyone eventually experiences in their lives. The question is: Why and was it just? Today, the modern liberal media does everything it came to shame Christians and paint us as the enemy. In their publications, they light it up with their sarcasm, jokes and put downs of Christians. This is especially true in social media.
There is shame caused by others against you and there is being ashamed (the shame you bring on yourself). Ever read Genesis about Adam and Eve? After God had created Adam and Eve, Genesis 2:25 says this: “Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame” (NASB). The grammatical structure of this verb means they were not “ashamed with or of each other.”
Here were two fully grown adults who had never met standing facing one another totally naked physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually and they did not feel any shame. Neither one was running for cover. In our day we cannot even imagine being that exposed to someone we had just met. Well, it didn’t take long for innocence to be replaced with iniquity.
And when that happened, look at what Genesis 3:7 says, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves” (NASB). Do you see how they knew they were naked? – their eyes were opened. The Hebrew text tends to lead one to think that they were not only guilty before God, but before God’s created order. Their sin had exposed them to every creature and they ran to cover themselves up. God’s creation with all its animals and such was a jury whose verdict came back with the shout of “Guilty!”
It is as if all of nature gasped at their shameful sin. There was no place they could hide. They had been exposed. They imagined that all of God’s creatures were eyewitnesses to their sin and with those “spectators” looking at them, they tried to hide it with a “Coldplay Kiss Cam” response. Next, they would have to face God, Someone they could not hide from nor cover up their sin.
Jesus warned us this is supposed to happen. Why? Jesus said this in John 3:20, “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed” (NASB). Our light convicts their sin. This is why they do everything they can to extinguish it. The bottom line question is: Are you ashamed for people to see that you are a Jesus lover? Do you play down your relationship to Christ as work or school or in public because you do not want to be some kind of “Jesus fanatic”? Are you open with your faith in public? Do people see you reading the Bible? Does church and discipleship ever come up in your conversations with others not in church? Jesus said, “Expect the lost world to hate you and to shame you on My account.” If that is not happening, it may be because you look too much like our culture and not like Christ.
Assignment: This week, if you are not ashamed of who Jesus is and what He has done for you, then share Him with someone who is not a Christian or with someone who is saved, but is not living like it. No one can extinguish the light of Christ in you but . . . you. Christ will not. Our culture cannot and not even the devil nor hell can.
Scripture To Meditate On: Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile” (NASB).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, I know You are not ashamed of me. I never want to give the impression to You or anyone else that I am ashamed of You. I want to look at Christ, not my culture. I want people to see You before they see me. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside!--Pastor Kelly