The Upper Room
A fresh word for the day. Come back tomorrow — there's always a seat. The cross at the heart of it all is the Infinity Crying Cross™.
Devotional #1
SIXTY YEARS IN THE PLANNING BY THE FATHER
Scripture: "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." — Jeremiah 29:11
This cross was not a quick thought. It was something planned out for sixty years by the Father — about an hour, if you ask my Father. Sixty years of roads, of tents and triumphs, of getting knocked down and getting carried back up — all of it was the planning by the Father.
That cross is the Infinity Crying Cross™.
You may not understand where you are today. I didn't either, most days. But you're where you're supposed to be, at the time you're supposed to be there, for the lesson. That's my Daddy's map, and I've followed it by blind faith since I could walk.
Say it out loud: "Sixty years in the planning by the Father — and God wasn't late one day of it."
Devotional #2
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27 — "DON'T CLIMB ABOARD"
Scripture: "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." — James 4:7
There's a long black train rolling down the line, and it stops for everybody. It stopped for me — in bars, in bad deals, in the nights I thought I was done. The train always looks like a ride out. It never is. It's a ride away — away from your family, away from your Father, away from the man you were built to be. You don't have to outrun it. You just don't climb aboard. Stand on the platform, keep your feet on the ground God gave you, and watch it roll past empty.
Say it out loud: "That train don't carry my name anymore."
Devotional #3
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28 — "BROKEN BUT BLESSED"
Scripture: "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair." — 2 Corinthians 4:8
I live in a tent in Florida, and I'm building a house for God on the internet from that tent. A stroke slowed my body; it did not touch the mission. I've been the man sleeping on cardboard next to a stranger so he wouldn't be alone in the cold. Broken? By the world's count, sure. Blessed? Ask me any morning — I wake up with a song on. Broken but blessed. That's not a slogan. That's a man still standing because his Father never let go of his hand.
Say it out loud: "Broken but blessed — that's me, and it can be you too."
DAUGHTER OF THE KING
PSALM 46:5 — GOD IS WITHIN HER
Devotional #4
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29 — "ALL WE HAVE IS TODAY"
Scripture: "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." — Matthew 6:34
I'm five years sober, and I didn't get here five years at a time. I got here one day at a time — some of them one hour at a time. That's how my Father runs my clock anyway: I sleep, I wake up, I work, and the day in front of me is the whole assignment. Don't borrow trouble from a tomorrow that isn't promised, and don't drag yesterday behind you like a chain. There is a blessing in today with your name on it. Open your eyes, thank Him for it, and spend today like it matters — because today is the only coin you've actually got in your pocket.
Say it out loud: "All I have is today — and today, I have my Father."
Devotional #5
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30 — "NEW EVERY MORNING"
Scripture: "His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." — Lamentations 3:22-23
Yesterday, somewhere in it, I messed up — we all did, someplace. Here's what my Father taught me: you don't walk past a mistake, you make it right — and then you don't live in it. Because while I was still sleeping, He was already laying out fresh mercy for this morning. Not leftovers. Not yesterday's warmed over. New — like it was made for the exact man who needs it today. That's why I don't wake up counting what I lost. I wake up counting what's already on the table. His faithfulness was never the question. It never will be.
Say it out loud: "His mercy was here before I woke up — great is His faithfulness."
Devotional #6
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31 — "A FRIEND TO THE END"
Scripture: "There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." — Proverbs 18:24
All week we've talked about the planning, the train, the pressing, the day, and the mercy. Here's what all of it stands on: there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. I've had nights with nobody in the room — and I was never once alone. That friend carried me when my legs wouldn't, sat with me in the quiet, and never asked me to clean myself up before I knocked on His door. That's the house we're building here: a place where the lonely get a friend to the end — because that's the friend He was to me first.
Say it out loud: "I've got a friend to the end — and so do you."