Daily Devotion for November 22, 2025
Prayers
Scripture
Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.
Today’s “Saturday Oldie” is really old, from the first days of recording. The Church in the Wildwood was recorded by the Carter Family in the 1920s, in Bristol, Tennessee.
In 1927, the Victor Talking Machine Company set up a temporary studio in Bristol, to memorialize the active music community in the rural Southeast, thereby giving birth to “country music.” It’s an interesting window into history.
No lovelier place in the dale
No spot is so dear to my childhood
As the little brown church in the vale.
Chorus:
Oh, come to the church by the wildwood
Come to the church in the dale,
No place is so dear to my childhood
As the little brown church in the vale.
How sweet on a clear Sabbath morning
To list to the clear ringing bell.
It's tones so sweetly are calling
Oh, come to the church in the vale.
There, close by the church in the valley
Lies one that I love so well.
She sleeps, sweetly sleeps, neath the willow
Disturb not her rest in the vale.
There, close by the side of that loved one
Neath the tree where the wild flowers bloom.
When the farewell hymn shall be chanted
I shall rest by her side in the tomb.
To Live in the Knowledge of Christ
Dear Jesus, I can open up my heart to you. I can tell you everything that troubles me. I know you care about all the concerns in my life.
Teach me to live in the knowledge that you who care for me today, will care for me tomorrow and all the days of my life.
For the Forgiveness of Sins
My Jesus, I place all my sins before you. In my estimation they do not deserve pardon, But I ask you to close your eyes to my want of merit, and open them to your infinite merit. Since you willed to die for my sins, grant me forgiveness for all of them. Thus, I may no longer feel the burden of my sins, a burden that oppresses me beyond measure.
Assist me, dear Jesus, for I desire to become good no matter what the cost. Take away, destroy, and utterly root out whatever you find in me that is contrary to your holy will. At the same time, dear Jesus, illumine me so that I may walk in your holy light.
Prayer for Protection (from Psalm 3)
O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God. But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. I cry aloud to you, and you answer me from your holy hill. I lie down and sleep, and I wake again, for you have sustained me. I will not fear the men of this world, even if thousands set themselves against me.
Arise, O Lord! Save me, O my God! For salvation belongs to you alone. May your blessing be ever on your people.
Benediction
Now to Him who has given me grace in accordance with His gospel, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for many ages past, but now revealed and made known by the command of the eternal God, so that all mankind might find the obedience that comes from faith; to the only God, the God of wisdom and truth, be glory forever through His only son, Jesus Christ.
Think of the day ahead in terms of God with you, and visualize health, strength, guidance, purity, calm confidence, and victory as the gifts of His presence.
Today’s “Remember the Bible” Question
What commandment did Jesus give us beginning at Matthew 5:34?
Psalm 99:1-3 (NKJV)
The Lord reigns;
Let the peoples tremble!
He dwells between the cherubim;
Let the earth be moved!
The Lord is great in Zion,
And He is high above all the peoples.
Let them praise Your great and awesome name!
Romans 1:28-32 (ESV)
The Actions of the Ungodly
nd since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.
They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Notes on the Scripture
In the preceding verses (Romans 1:24-27), Paul shows that everyone is able to discern God’s existence, simply from the miracle of creation. Those who do not, inevitably practice idolatry; filled with blindness and pride, they make idols in their own image and worship them, whether the idol is a little clay figure, a portrait of Mao Tse Tung or their reflection in a mirror. They set themselves up as the creators of gods, a travesty of the creation of man in God’s image. Such idolaters are given over to sin. Sin is not the evil that condemns them, so much as the punishment for their idolatry.
Egyptian magicians
Paul then spews out a laundry list of sinfulness that punishes idolaters, in today’s passage. Some are general, such as “unrighteousness”; some specific, such as slander and gossip; some are really forms of sinfulness rather than specific acts, such as disobedience to parents or heartlessness. The categories of envy, pride, and self-centeredness seem to be the focus of this list.
The upshot of Romans 1:24-32 is the great condemnation of secular humanism. When man arrogates to himself his own creation, his pride and willful blindness enslave him to the perversion of his natural purpose. He has no point of reference.
The final sentence should be chilling to all of us, living in the culture of contemporary self-reference; it is not simply those who practice such sinfulness who embrace death, but those who “give approval”. The godless applaud others’ acts of godlessness.
Without God, society becomes a suicide pact. To commit murder, one does not have to put the victim’s head in the noose; one need only stand quietly at the edge of the lynch mob. Paul’s language suggests that general approval of sinful behavior is as depraved as the individual act.
It is not hard to see Paul’s point exemplified in today’s culture. As idolatry becomes ever more prevalent, general approval of every kind of sinful behavior seems to follow close behind. Governments, media, and shared attitudes ever more encourage us to become “foolish, faithless, heartless, [and] ruthless.”
