WANT OR NEED? 4

Philippians 4:19 But my God shall SUPPLY ALL YOUR NEED according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Psalm 23:1 A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

A teacher was trying to drive home the importance of expanding the vocabulary. She said that if you repeat a word ten times it will be yours forever. A young coed in the back of the class was heard saying over and over, "Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike..."

She obviously wanted Mike to be hers forever. I don't know if she ever got Mike or not but I wonder if she had would she have been happy with what she got. There are many times we think of so many things that we want. We think if we just had this or if we just had that we would be happy. I can speak from experience in saying that getting what we want does not always make us happy.

It is sometimes like the dog who caught the skunk. He got what he wanted but he sure didn't want what he got.

I think we would all be better off if we would just pray "Not my will, but thy will be done." It is then that we get what we need.

Please feel free to contact me by email at

shilohkosciusko@gmail.com with questions, comments or even suggestions for further devotional studies.


If you know of someone new to the Kosciusko area and would like for our church to visit them please let us know. Our prayers are that this devotional ministry will be an outreach to bring people into a closer relationship with Jesus. I do appreciate you taking the time to read these devotionals and please keep us in your prayers.

WANT OR NEED? 3

Philippians 4:19 But my God shall SUPPLY ALL YOUR NEED according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Ps 23:1 A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

"I really need a new cell phone."

That was a comment I heard a man make. At the time the man had no car, he was living in a house with no furniture and no utilities and had just started to work. His boss had to furnish his lunch each day until he got his first paycheck but he made that comment.

Sometimes I have heard people say other things like that and I am still amazed. I have a cell phone. I think maybe I was one of the last people in America to break down and get one. I love it. I like being in contact with my family on facebook and I like following people I am interested in on twitter but I can honestly say I don't absolutely need a phone of any kind.

There are many things that make our life more convenient and more comfortable that we have come to think of as necessities when actually they are luxuries.

Not only have I learned that I have all I need. I feel that I am greatly blessed to have much of what I want. A comfortable place to live, heat and air conditioning, clean water to drink, decent clothes to wear, and so many other things that we take for granted. "The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want."



Please feel free to contact me by email at

shilohkosciusko@gmail.com with questions, comments or even suggestions for further devotional studies.


If you know of someone new to the Kosciusko area and would like for our church to visit them please let us know. Our prayers are that this devotional ministry will be an outreach to bring people into a closer relationship with Jesus. I do appreciate you taking the time to read these devotionals and please keep us in your prayers.

WANT OR NEED? 2

Philippians 4:19 But my God shall SUPPLY ALL YOUR NEED according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Psalm 23:1 A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

I have many times heard the excuse "Sunday is my only day off so I need it to rest" as an excuse for not attending church. I have also noticed that the same person might spend the day doing just about anything but resting.

God shall supply all our needs. We need a time to be fed spiritually. We need a time to fellowship with other Christians and to study God's Word together. We need to spend some time in worship, after all, that is what we were created for. We need to be where God wants us to be. We need to be working together with His church doing His work. He has provided a way for us to do that and He chose to do His work through the Churches.

We may want to sleep in. (I suggest an afternoon nap after the services.) We may want to visit relatives or go to the beach or fishing or to a ball game but we definitely do not need those things.

America is truly at a crossroads and we must really do some searching of our hearts to find out what it really is we need. I promise you all your true needs can be supplied by a God who created it all.

Please feel free to contact me by email at

shilohkosciusko@gmail.com with questions, comments or even suggestions for further devotional studies.


If you know of someone new to the Kosciusko area and would like for our church to visit them please let us know. Our prayers are that this devotional ministry will be an outreach to bring people into a closer relationship with Jesus. I do appreciate you taking the time to read these devotionals and please keep us in your prayers.
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WANT OR NEED? 1

Philippians 4:19 But my God shall SUPPLY ALL YOUR NEED according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Ps 23:1 A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

INTRODUCTION: We are living in a time and place that has been truly blessed. We have been blessed to the point that we have blurred the lines between wants and needs. What was once considered government charity has now been termed entitlements and people have surely come to feel that they are entitled to more than they need.

My son was visiting us the other day and my wife's birthday is approaching and he asked her, "Mom, is there anything you need that I can get you for your birthday." Her answer was, "Son, I really have everything I need."

It was the truth. She later remarked to me what a blessing it was to be able to say, "I have everything I need."

I am sure that as Christians, if we all examined what we have closely we would agree that we have everything we need. If someone were to ask me if there was anything in the world I wanted I might could come up with a very long list. I am sure we all could.

Jesus is sufficient for my salvation, to comfort me, to give me peace and for so much more. I guess as Christians we have everything we truly need in Him.

Please feel free to contact me by email at

shilohkosciusko@gmail.com with questions, comments or even suggestions for further devotional studies.


If you know of someone new to the Kosciusko area and would like for our church to visit them please let us know. Our prayers are that this devotional ministry will be an outreach to bring people into a closer relationship with Jesus. I do appreciate you taking the time to read these devotionals and please keep us in your prayers.

Deception 4

Galations 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

It is sad to hear someone say of a young person, "Well, you know how it is, they have to sow their wild oats." No, they don't have too even though they usually will. What they don't usually say is that they are praying for a crop failure. They will reap what they sow and sometimes it is not a very pretty crop.

When I was very young we always had a garden, actually it was more like a truck patch. We grew a lot of what we ate. One thing I learned was that if you planted okra you would reap okra. If you planted butter beans you would reap butter beans.

In the last church I pastored there was a young man who lived next door and he came to my house with some of the biggest cucumbers I had ever seen in my life. They were way to big to be good anymore and he asked me, "Do you think these watermelons are ripe yet." I couldn't help laughing even though he was pretty upset. He had mistakenly planted cucumbers and was waiting for watermelons. He was disappointed.

Many people are sowing to the flesh and are disappointed when they do not reap the spiritual rewards. Spiritual growth comes from sowing spiritual seeds. When we sow to the flesh it is corrupted. You can not expect to grow into a spiritually mature Christian if you spend all your time in carnal pursuits. You must spend time in prayer, fellowship, study and witnessing to truly be sowing the spiritual seeds you need to sow. You can't plant cucumbers and reap watermelons.

Please feel free to contact me by email at

shilohkosciusko@gmail.com with questions, comments or even suggestions for further devotional studies.


If you know of someone new to the Kosciusko area and would like for our church to visit them please let us know. Our prayers are that this devotional ministry will be an outreach to bring people into a closer relationship with Jesus. I do appreciate you taking the time to read these devotionals and please keep us in your prayers.

Deception 3

Eph 5:6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.

I can't help but think of this verse whenever there is a big election. The politicians are all looking for some 30 second sound bite that will wind up on the evening news and they give speeches that sound really good. The problem is that when it is all over with we have no idea what they are saying.

Today even some preachers say that they do not believe that the Bible means what it says. If that is true I wonder why they are preaching in the first place and I wonder what are they preaching.

Sermons with no scriptural backing to them are empty. They are deceptive. They mean nothing, yet, many people are flocking to hear sweet sounding words because they don't convict them of the sin in their lives. Little do they know that they are bringing the wrath of God down on themselves.

Don't let Satan deceive you with vain words.


Please feel free to contact me by email at

shilohkosciusko@gmail.com with questions, comments or even suggestions for further devotional studies.


If you know of someone new to the Kosciusko area and would like for our church to visit them please let us know. Our prayers are that this devotional ministry will be an outreach to bring people into a closer relationship with Jesus. I do appreciate you taking the time to read these devotionals and please keep us in your prayers.

Decption 2

Galations 6:3 For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.

Satan will deceive man into thinking that he is much more than he is. Many have elevated themselves to a position way above that which God intended. We are vessels for His service and we should never get to a point to where we think we are the center of the universe. God is.
I am sure that you have noticed what my wife and I call "Special People". You know the type I am describing. They are the ones who get in the express check out lane with a basket full of groceries. The 10 items or less sign does not apply to them because they are special.
They are the ones who park next to the store in the no parking fire lane because the rules do not apply to them. Breaking in line is okay, because they are "Special".
I can't help but wonder why these "special people" don't think the rules apply to them. I wonder if they know how people feel about them when they act "special".
Jesus taught us to be humble. He taught us to prefer others above our self. If we will humble ourselves He will lift us up. Any other ideas we might have are merely deceptive.


Please feel free to contact me by email at

shilohkosciusko@gmail.com with questions, comments or even suggestions for further devotional studies.


If you know of someone new to the Kosciusko area and would like for our church to visit them please let us know. Our prayers are that this devotional ministry will be an outreach to bring people into a closer relationship with Jesus. I do appreciate you taking the time to read these devotionals and please keep us in your prayers.