Thursday Devotional - Our Christmas Picture/Letter 2025 (1/8/2026)

This year I got a late start on our family Christmas card. Then, when it arrived, the last two lines of text were cut off. Joe spent a few hours figuring out the font, downloading it to his computer and printing the missing lines onto the back of each card! So, a belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Reas (Joe, Alice, James (13), Sarah (11), Edmund and Alexis (9)).

           I pray we also grow closer to God through the study of His Word this entire year!

What spiritual goals are you and I prayerfully planning to accomplish, with the help of the Holy Spirit?

Thursday Devotional – Jesus is Worthy to Reveal and Hold Secrets (5/22/25)

Who likes to be in on secrets? My kids like to be in the know about gifts for their siblings. They especially enjoy being able to help pick out a gift. However, there are certain gifts no sibling knows about for the birthday kid until the birthday comes.

Similarly, through our study of Revelation, we get to be in on some of the secrets regarding the end of time, the new heaven and the new earth! Jesus hasn’t given us all the details, though. We won’t know or understand everything until our new life in heaven.

Before the 7^th angel sounded the trumpet, we receive an interesting interlude:

Revelation 10:1-4         Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven. He was robed in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were like fiery pillars. ² He was holding a little scroll, which lay open in his hand. He planted his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, ³ and he gave a loud shout like the roar of a lion. When he shouted, the voices of the seven thunders spoke. ⁴ And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven say, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down.”

Jesus (through the 7 thunders or 7 spirits or the Holy Spirit) revealed a mystery to John that only he knows. Why can’t we know it? Maybe it is too awful regarding the final and complete judgment on the entire earth. Maybe it’s beyond our comprehension. Maybe it was specific to John.

Whatever the reason, it made me realize how privileged we are to know any of Jesus’s plans. It’s amazing Jesus chooses to reveal some details to us. We can appreciate the “secrets” we do know and diligently study the Bible to understand all that He has revealed.

What time will you and I set aside each day to learn more of Jesus’s “secrets” (by the Holy Spirit’s help)? Which “secret” will you and I share with others?

Thursday Devotional - Hearing Only?

I often ask the kids “what did I say?!” Sometimes I ask it in response to them asking the same question they’ve just asked, hoping for a different answer! Other times, I ask it when I catch them not picking up after I asked them to pick up their toys. In either scenario, my kids heard and knew what I said but didn’t listen and obey.

Similarly, I can hear, read and know God’s Word, but what difference will it make in my life unless I apply and obey it?

Romans 2:13-16     ¹³ For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. ¹⁴ (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. ¹⁵ They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.) ¹⁶ This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

Whether you plan to read the whole Bible in a year this year or have some other Bible study plan, end your time with at least one application question for yourself. I often write out my application question in a journal and then write out the answer. Sometimes I have to think about it and answer it the next day (or later).

James 1:22 & 25 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says… But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it – not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it – they will be blessed in what they do.

Alice