Daily Devotional

  How Is It Possible to Truly Love One Another?  Complement to 5/25/25 Sermon To truly love one another, God must give you the ability to do that. You have zero ability to do that on your own. à Is God transforming and directing your heart to love one another and please Him? If not, you are in need of salvation.   So, if God is in complete control of instilling in us the ability to use His attributes for His purposes, are we off the hook? Even though we should not try to display God’s attributes on our own, as believers, we’re committed daily to our Lord’s service! So, ultimately NO! à Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” (Lu. 9:23)   Check out 1 John 4:7-8 – “ Beloved, let us love one another: For love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love .”   Good news à “(v. 7) Love is o...

Collective Thoughts on Human Creation and Marriage     contents from a Facebook post on March 11, 2025 Genesis 2:23-24 - "The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man (Adam) said, 'This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.' Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh."   Married, single, divorced, or widowed?  Male or female?  Complementarian or Egalitarian?  Believe the events behind this passage literally ha...

  Sermon from May 25 Morning Worship service "Displaying 'God Is Love'" - 1 John 4:7-21 First Baptist Church, Carney, OK Pastor Dan Calkins Here's the link:  May 25, 2025 Sermon Link  

  Prayers and Bible Lessons for Any Storm or Tribulation For Audio Recording of these Prayers and Lessons, click here. (Most of the prayers taken from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. Bible verses from the King James Version of the Bible.) O Lord, open Thou our lips. And our mouth shall show forth Thy praise. O God, make speed to save us. O Lord, make haste to help us. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Praise ye the Lord. The Lord’s Name be praised.   Psalm 46 - God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 2  Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; 3  Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah . 4  There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, ...

Praise for the Brief Opportunity to Minister to More Than Usual This past week, Carney Public Schools had their annual graduation and end of school ceremonies. My oldest son graduated high school, while another son of mine "graduated" 8th grade (YAY!). On Wednesday, our church took their turn to host the Baccalaureate service and dinner for the high school graduates. Overall, a fine event! Out of the 16 high school graduates, 11 attended the evening service, with two of the graduates participating in the service. Each grad received a Gideon Bible from my father-in-law and his fellow Gideon, we sang, prayed, read Scripture, and I gave a relatively short message on Ecclesiastes 12 ("Remember your Creator in the days of your youth"). I also invited the Assembly of God Youth Pastor to pray and share to close the service (which easily could have turned into another sermon-kudos to Pastor Tony for his self-control!).  Including the graduates, 78 total people attended the ...

  Thoughts on Ezra 9, Intermarriage - Part one of Marriage series Here's some "brainstorming" I wrote about a year ago when working through a sermon series on the book of Ruth. It is currently a subject of interest in many spheres of social media among Christians. Here is Ezra 9 with some of my thoughts. Ezra 10 will come in a later post. The text is in regular print, while my thoughts are in  Small Caps .  Ezra Prays About Intermarriage ( By “Intermarriage,” Marrying without concern for Faith, Race, or Ethnicity.) 9 After these things had been done, the officials approached me and said, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations, from the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.  2  For they have taken some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and for their s...

   Sermon from May 11 Morning Worship service "Passing the Baton to the Next Generation" - 2 Timothy 1:3-7 First Baptist Church, Carney, OK Pastor Dan Calkins Here's the link:  May 11, 2025 Sermon Link  

  Sermon from May 18 Morning Worship service "Testing the Spirits" - 1 John 4:1-6 First Baptist Church, Carney, OK Pastor Dan Calkins Here's the link:  May 18, 2025 Sermon Link  

  Romans 8:35-39 – Nothing Can Separate  (Personal Notes about this passage of Scripture) 35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? ·        The answer is obvious, but it is good to be patient and be blessed by the answer. Not only will we receive the answer, but what is powerless to separate us from the love of Christ! Shall tribulation, or distress, ·        All these things we remember more often than the good things in our lives. We even create landmarks in our memory banks referring to these tragedies. Many off us (if we’re old enough) remember where we were when we first heard of JFK’s death, or MLK’s death, or the Challenger disaster, or the Oklahoma City bombing, or 9/11. How about when your loved one or dear friend passed away, or was diagnosed with a devastating illness? ·        1 Corinthians 13:12 " For  now we see in a mirror dimly, but  t...

  Sermon from May 4 Morning Worship service "The Patient Process of Proving" - 1 John 3:19-24 First Baptist Church, Carney, OK Pastor Dan Calkins Here's the link:  May 4, 2025 Sermon Link