Daily Devotional
By Pastor Jerry Teboe
A Closer Walk with Christ in 2026
Psalm 80:19
Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; Cause Your face to shine, And we shall be saved!
On July 4th, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted marking the founding of the United States as a free nation. But the spirit of freedom did not begin in just that decade. There was a spirit moving in America for some time before the revolution began. It was known as the First Great Awakening which brought many to a saving faith in the Lord Jesus and with it a desire for freedom not just spiritually but also nationally. The following is a short summary of that time of revival.
Long before America became a nation, a young evangelist named George Whitefield stood in open fields and town squares proclaiming a bold message: You must be born again. His preaching helped spark the First Great Awakening and shaped the spiritual foundation of a generation. The United States experienced a remarkable revival a few decades before the Declaration of Independence was signed. The impact of that revival reverberated powerfully in the founding of our nation. Being restored to that original condition could look like many different things in our country. Noah Webster, often referred as the Father of American Scholarship and Education, offered a starting point when he said, “The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. . . . All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.”
- For the church, which is the spiritual center of our nation, being restored to the original condition would resemble the description of Paul and Silas found in Acts 17:6: “These who have turned the world upside down” (NKJV). The church is meant to impact the world, not be impacted by it. It’s meant to disrupt the status quo and not to settle for it. The church is meant to shine a light on the darkness of this world and not to ignore it or make excuses for it.
- Revival encourages us to embrace the full extent of our God-given potential. It compels us to do the hard work to become the best possible versions of ourselves—as individuals, as a church, and as a nation. (Copied)
- Some of the leaders in the Great Awakening were men like Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, John and Charles Wesley, Theodore Frelinghuysen, Gilbert Tennent, and David Brainerd, who revitalized Protestantism through passionate preaching and emphasis on personal conversion. These men effectively brought the colonies to faith in Christ. Their conversion experience with the Lord our Savior also gave them a desire to be free from foreign domination which led to the American Revolution! Praise the Lord for the freedom this brought us of being able to worship openly. Let’s keep our own hearts on fire for God!
Bible Reading for the Year
July 3rd, Job 31-32; Acts 13:1-23
Prayer Needs
Please continue to pray for Kenny Deans. He will have an appointment on July 14th with his kidney doctor.
Please continue to pray for Shirley Deans. She had the port for chemo treatments put in on Monday, and she was able to go home later. Shirley is tired and needs our prayers.
Continue to pray for Jennifer Teboe Buchamer. Please keep praying for complete healing. She sees her doctor at Duke on July 17th. Please pray for wisdom for the doctor concerning her treatment.
Please continue to pray for Dr. Joe Jordan. He is doing physical therapy, but still has a long way to go. Pray for him to get stronger!
Please continue to pray for Peggy Warren. She is facing some difficult challenges.
Please continue to pray for Robbie Harvey who has MAC lung disease. He seems some better; however, he still has a lot of pain.
Please pray for Carolyn Tyson’s sister, Shirley Deal. She had a stroke after having an infusion port taken out. She is still in rehab.
Please continue to pray for Marvin Silverthorne for his eyesight to improve.
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Pray for our Missionaries!
Sue Singleton and the mission in Cambodia
Dr. Joe Jordan and the CBM (Cross and Bible Ministries)
Travis and Caroline Fennessy – IBM missionaries to Southeast Asia