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Applying the Bible

By: Krystal Craven Christian Music
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  • Summary

  • A weekly devotional designed to help you grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, through practical application of spiritual truths from God's word.
    © 2020-2024 Krystal Craven
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Episodes
  • I Have Found My Sheep

    I Have Found My Sheep
    May 30 2024
    Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. (Luke 15:1-7) In our culture, it may be hard to understand this parable because not many of us understand having sheep. Most of us likely think of sheep as the dumb animals that literally need a shepherd to care for them or they’ll die. But here we’re given context to the owner of the sheep’s perspective. If one sheep is lost, they leave the ninety-nine and go after the one lost sheep, rejoicing when it’s found. It’s very interesting here because Jesus is telling this parable to Pharisees and scribes, none of which would lower themselves to the status of shepherd, which was a rather low society job and a social outcast. Yet He is telling them a parable specifically with the shepherd’s perspective. It was going to require the Pharisees and scribes to humble their perspective to understand God’s perspective, that of a Good Shepherd. The Lost Sheep We already know God likens us to sheep. We may be smarter than animals, but in light of God, we’re dumb like sheep. We get into all sorts of trouble and we NEED our Shepherd to guide us, lead us beside still waters, restore our soul, anoint our heads with oil, and literally step by step take care of us through life. We are completely dependent on Him for eternal life and should be completely dependent on Him for all our needs on this side of eternity too. We all go astray at times, but God is faithful to go after us when we do. Notice that when the sheep is found, it is laid on the shoulders of the shepherd, as the shepherd rejoices. There are times of going astray and it takes its toll on us. God doesn’t just find us and poke and prod us with the shepherd staff, He picks us up and carries us home. We are close to Him, hearing His voice once again, and being carried to a place of safety. The Joy of Repentance And look at that heavenly scene Jesus describes – that there is joy in heaven when a sinner repents! Jesus makes a clear point here, but it can be easily looked over. He says there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. Now this requires realizing that there will only be one righteous human being in heaven who never needed to repent, and that person is Jesus Christ. We know that all have sinned and fallen short and all need to repent in order to receive salvation in Jesus and stand righteous before God. So, then what is Jesus saying here? Jesus is emphasizing the point that repentance is highly important and joy inducing, even among the angels in heaven. Repentance is required to enter heaven; therefore it is important and therefore it induces joy because that means that Jesus gets one more person whom He died to redeem. Jesus gets more of the reward He died to pay for and that is a joyous thing! The prideful Pharisees and scribes who thought of themselves as righteous before God in and of themselves were faced with this truth – that even if they were able to be completely righteous by themselves, God’s joy and delight is in the sinner’s repentance. Jesus spent time telling the Pharisees and scribes again and again that they weren’t all that and a bag of chips to help them see and understand their need for salvation in Him, to understand what their Law had been saying all along. Repentance was always part of what God was saying to them through the Law and Prophets, but they refused to acknowledge it. They instead sought to create their own self-righteousness that would never truly be righteous before God at all. And on the other hand, the tax collectors and sinners who had drawn near to hear heard the good news of repentance. They would have already felt like the lost black sheep of Israel, but the good news that God had come to seek and save the lost was stirring hearts to repentance. Where Are You? Where are you at in the fold of God today? Are you part of the herd, eating up the Word of God with your fellow sheep, listening to the voice of the Good Shepherd? Or have you wandered off alone – maybe you haven’t even taken the time to look up and realize that you’re lost? Take a personal pause today and look up – if you see your Shepherd and you’re among the sheepfold being guided by the Shepherd, keep going...
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    11 mins
  • Salt is Good

    Salt is Good
    May 16 2024

    “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Luke 14:34-35)

    Jesus warned about the consequences of not continuing in a distinctive lifestyle of following Him, which He likened to salt that lost its flavor. This analogy illustrates a really important concept of maintaining ourselves in Christ in order to be useful in the mission of Christ.

    Salt Is Distinct

    Salt is distinct – it adds flavor, it preserves, and it purifies. BUT, if it loses its saltiness, it is ineffective and therefore useless.

    You know how you can cook up some food and it just tastes bleh, but when you add salt, it’s a night and day difference in the flavor? We are called as followers of Jesus to be distinct, to stand out from the world; we are to be the salt that brings that night and day difference to a world that’s spiritually devoid of the flavor of Christ.

    Salt has a unique effect, simultaneously causing a wonderful flavor while creating a desire for water. If we are being salt, we will be a wonderful flavor to a bland world in need of Jesus and they will in turn desire the water of the Word to quench the thirst we’ve helped create as salt.

    Salt Must Be Pure

    If we allow the saltiness of our faith to be corrupted or transformed into something else altogether, we lose our distinctiveness as salt – we lose our distinctiveness as followers of Jesus.

    All of our actions, our character, our integrity, all that we say and do, should all reflect Jesus. If we start mixing in the world’s values like a spice mixture with our salt, then we’re no longer distinctive because we’d be something else entirely, having been conformed by the world instead of transformed by the renewing of our minds. That in turn results in losing effectiveness in sharing the message of the gospel.

    Quick example - If you had a sore throat, we’d all agree that gargling salt water is a great method of helping your throat heal. But what if you replaced that salt with taco seasoning, would you still want to gargle with that? That sounds crazy, right? Taco seasoning has salt mixed with a lot of other seasonings and it would not be effective in treating a sore throat like pure salt water does. In the same way, if you’re mixing with the world, it’s like offering a throat gargle as taco seasoning and it’s useless to the one with a sore throat.

    But Jesus took this even further because He said that if salt has lost its saltiness, it’s of no use and is thrown away. A flavorless salt is completely worthless because it doesn’t serve any purpose at all whatsoever. If one loses their essence of Christ-likeness in the way that salt loses its flavor, they’re not of any use in advancing the kingdom of God.

    Maintaining Saltiness

    If we want to remain useful and spiritually flavorful, we have to preserve the flavor of our faith by growing in our relationship with Jesus. This goes back to the words Jesus spoke from last week’s devotional – deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus. This is an abiding relationship full of prayer, His word, and living a sanctified life obedient to Christ. This is living set apart, being distinctive in our faith, and being the genuine salt to a world so desperately in need of the flavor of Jesus.

    In light of this, let’s maintain our saltiness by being in the word, in prayer, and obedient to God so that we will be useful in bringing taste, preservation, and purity to a world in need of Jesus, impacting lives and glorifying God through our distinctive Christ-likeness that makes others thirst for the Living Water!
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    7 mins
  • Jesus Above All

    Jesus Above All
    May 9 2024
    Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:25-33) As believers walking in our faith, we are called to love God above all else. This is literally the essence of the first commandment, to put God above everything in our life. But following Jesus is not without its hardships. It demands a radical devotion to Christ that surpasses even our deepest earthly relationships. As disciples of Christ, we are called to bear our cross and follow Him wholeheartedly. The Cost Jesus Himself spoke very clearly about the cost of discipleship. He said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26). These words may initially sound harsh, but it speaks to the depth of our commitment to Him. Being a disciple of Jesus means prioritizing our relationship with Him over every other relationship, even our closest family and friends. It doesn’t mean we don’t have love for our family; instead, it redefines it in light of our love for Christ. Jesus must occupy the throne of our hearts, with no rivals for that seat. Choosing to follow Jesus demands a willingness to let go of anything that might hinder our devotion to Him. This could mean letting go of certain goals in life, worldly possessions, or even our own human comforts. It’s about surrendering all that we are and all that we have at the feet of our Savior, Jesus. The Path Following Jesus isn’t an easy path, but it is the best path and only path that leads to eternal life. It may lead us down places we never thought we’d go, and it may take sacrifices that are extremely difficult in being obedient to God. Yet, through it all, there is a deep joy in walking in His footsteps and being refined through what we face, knowing it’s producing good things in us. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 16:25). And we can know and take comfort that our Good Shepherd is leading us down paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake. And even when we are walking through the valley of the shadow of death, we don’t have to fear because He is with us! (Psalm 23) Your Identity To be a disciple of Jesus is to identify with Him completely. It’s about taking up our cross daily and following Him, regardless of the cost. There is no identifying with Him in the resurrection without identifying with Him in the cross. When Jesus was on earth, He followed the Father’s will perfectly even when it led Him to the cross to pay Himself as the sacrifice for us. To identify with Christ is to wholly embrace His teachings, His example, and His mission as our own. Paul reminded the Romans about this identity when he said, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Romans 6:3-5) Our identity in Him isn’t just here on earth, it’s in heaven before our heavenly Father, in which we’ll one day live forever with Him if we choose to follow Him now! The Finish Another important note here in Jesus’ examples of building a tower and going to war, is that the end result is the most important. There are many people who started their walks with Jesus coming out of some really bad things – drugs, alcohol, violence, sexual immorality, the list could go on and on. But in Christ, His sacrifice covers all of it. How awful it would be to start following Jesus after hearing the good news of the gospel and then fall away and not reach the end with Him! In walking in our identity in Christ and pushing on in Him even when it’s hard so that we make it to the finish line well, we should do as Paul did when he...
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    9 mins
Ministry & Evangelism Spirituality
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Scripturally accurate Bible devotionals

This is a huge number of devotionals that are accurate to scripture and help me to be encouraged in my walk of faith through life.

The production quality of the podcast is high, Krystal's voice is easy to hear, her personality is upbeat and fun (as much as a devotional can be), and you can tell she is faithful in her walk with Christ.

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