April 29, 2023

April 29, 2023

To prevent the frustration of falling behind, which most of us tend to do when following a Bible reading plan, each month of this plan gives you only twenty-five readings. Today we start a few “free days” . We encourage you to catch up on any readings you may have missed this month.

If you have finished the month’s readings, you can use these final days of the month to study the passages that challenged or intrigued you.

Daily Devotion

The Foundation of Ethics

Today’s devotion is content from Chapter 1 of the book ‘Integrity – Principles of Christian ethics’ by Richard M. Davis.

Integrity: 

  1. Steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code.
  2. The state of being unimpaired; soundness.
  3. The quality or condition of being whole or undivided; completeness.

God – Worthy of Honor: In the presence of God is glory and honor. To come into God’s presence is to encounter His glory and holiness, and respect demands we give Him the glory and honor due Him. We owe a great debt to God. He is our Creator; we would not exist were it not for His glorious power, and we could not continue to exist were it not for His supreme love and mercy. 

  • Honor God by Being: The heavenly bodies shine forth with the light God has given them. They declare the glory of God by their mere existence. While all of creation praises the Creator by merely being what He has made them to be, He created humankind with an even higher purpose: to praise God not only by being, but also by doing what God directs. (Psalms 139:14).
  •  Honor God by Doing: How does a person glorify and honor God? He simply lives his life as God has designed it – following a lifestyle that honors Christ in both worship and conduct. To demonstrate the salvation of the Lord by living a redeemed lifestyle is the greatest act of praise and worship humankind can offer to God. (Psalms 96:1-13)

Man – Created to Give Honor to God: Only as we learn to honor God with the substance of our lives (Prov 3:9) are we able to know the real meaning of abundant life. What is honoring God by our substance? Without question, we are to honor God with our material – fruits of our increase, or the tithe. But the wise writer of Proverbs touched upon much more than that. A life of true substance goes far beyond monetary, and economic considerations. The substance of a person’s life involves the areas of significance in his life. When we bless and honor God in every area of our life, we are honoring Him with our substance, and the end result for us will be an abundant life in Christ!

  • Created to Serve: God created us to serve others from a pure heart. Jesus Christ did not come to be served, rather He came as a servant reaching out to His creation. (Phil 2:3-8)
  • Created to Live: We are created to live a life of spiritual abundance. We are created to live by the power and love of Jesus Christ. When His love is resplendent in our heart by His resident Holy Spirit, then we can experience the fullest life with contentment and satisfaction. But before we can live in Christ, we must die to our carnal desires. (Prov 21:21)
  • Created to Die: We honor God by living according to His Holy Spirit. We must serve Him from a regenerated heart that has been transformed by the power of His Spirit. When we have died to our sinful nature, we can live in the Spirit. (Rom 8:6)

Man – Created to Receive Honor: If we Honor God, He will honor us and make us His special people! (1 Sam 2:30, Deut 26:16-19). God has given believers the greatest honor of all by indwelling their hearts through the Holy Spirit. Because He lives within us, we have power to experience life in its most potent and fulfilling measure – life abundant.  

As we enjoy the abundant life Christ designed for His church, we are honoring God in the way that pleases Him the most – by being the people He made us to be and by doing the things He has called us to do. We are living a lifestyle that honors the name and person of the Lord Jesus Christ as we build upon the foundation of Christian ethics. As we endeavor to live, to honor, and glorify our Creator, let us seek to live with honesty and integrity toward God, toward others, and toward ourselves.


~ Yoga Raj