El Calafate, Patagonia, Argentina. Photo by Charles F. Stanley.

Daily Devotion

A Person God Can Use

When we choose to trust the Lord, He will use not only our strengths but also our weaknesses to accomplish His purposes.

March 1, 2025

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14 But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them: ``Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give heed to my words.

15 ``For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day;

16 but this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel:

17 `AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS,' God says, `THAT I WILL POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT ON ALL MANKIND; AND YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY, AND YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS, AND YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS;

18 EVEN ON MY BONDSLAVES, BOTH MEN AND WOMEN, I WILL IN THOSE DAYS POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT And they shall prophesy.

19 `AND I WILL GRANT WONDERS IN THE SKY ABOVE AND SIGNS ON THE EARTH BELOW, BLOOD, AND FIRE, AND VAPOR OF SMOKE.

20 `THE SUN WILL BE TURNED INTO DARKNESS AND THE MOON INTO BLOOD, BEFORE THE GREAT AND GLORIOUS DAY OF THE LORD SHALL COME.

21 `AND IT SHALL BE THAT EVERYONE WHO CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.'

22 ``Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know--

23 this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.

24 ``But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.

25 ``For David says of Him, `I SAW THE LORD ALWAYS IN MY PRESENCE; FOR HE IS AT MY RIGHT HAND, SO THAT I WILL NOT BE SHAKEN.

26 `THEREFORE MY HEART WAS GLAD AND MY TONGUE EXULTED; MOREOVER MY FLESH ALSO WILL LIVE IN HOPE;

27 BECAUSE YOU WILL NOT ABANDON MY SOUL TO HADES, NOR ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY.

28 `YOU HAVE MADE KNOWN TO ME THE WAYS OF LIFE; YOU WILL MAKE ME FULL OF GLADNESS WITH YOUR PRESENCE.'

29 ``Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.

30 ``And so, because he was a prophet and knew that GOD HAD SWORN TO HIM WITH AN OATH TO SEAT one OF HIS DESCENDANTS ON HIS THRONE,

31 he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that HE WAS NEITHER ABANDONED TO HADES, NOR DID His flesh SUFFER DECAY.

32 ``This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.

33 ``Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.

34 ``For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says: `THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, ``SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND,

35 UNTIL I MAKE YOUR ENEMIES A FOOTSTOOL FOR YOUR FEET."'

36 ``Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ--this Jesus whom you crucified."

Deuteronomy 24

1 ``When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house,

2 and she leaves his house and goes and becomes another man's wife,

3 and if the latter husband turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife,

4 then her former husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife, since she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the LORD, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance.

5 ``When a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out with the army nor be charged with any duty; he shall be free at home one year and shall give happiness to his wife whom he has taken.

6 ``No one shall take a handmill or an upper millstone in pledge, for he would be taking a life in pledge.

7 ``If a man is caught kidnapping any of his countrymen of the sons of Israel, and he deals with him violently or sells him, then that thief shall die; so you shall purge the evil from among you.

8 ``Be careful against an infection of leprosy, that you diligently observe and do according to all that the Levitical priests teach you; as I have commanded them, so you shall be careful to do.

9 ``Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam on the way as you came out of Egypt.

10 ``When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not enter his house to take his pledge.

11 ``You shall remain outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you.

12 ``If he is a poor man, you shall not sleep with his pledge.

13 ``When the sun goes down you shall surely return the pledge to him, that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you; and it will be righteousness for you before the LORD your God.

14 ``You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your countrymen or one of your aliens who is in your land in your towns.

15 ``You shall give him his wages on his day before the sun sets, for he is poor and sets his heart on it; so that he will not cry against you to the LORD and it become sin in you.

16 ``Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers; everyone shall be put to death for his own sin.

17 ``You shall not pervert the justice due an alien or an orphan, nor take a widow's garment in pledge.

18 ``But you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and that the LORD your God redeemed you from there; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing.

19 ``When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow, in order that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

20 ``When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow.

21 ``When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not go over it again; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow.

22 ``You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing.

Deuteronomy 25

1 ``If there is a dispute between men and they go to court, and the judges decide their case, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked,

2 then it shall be if the wicked man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall then make him lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of stripes according to his guilt.

3 ``He may beat him forty times but no more, so that he does not beat him with many more stripes than these and your brother is not degraded in your eyes.

4 ``You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing.

5 ``When brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a strange man. Her husband's brother shall go in to her and take her to himself as wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her.

6 ``It shall be that the firstborn whom she bears shall assume the name of his dead brother, so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.

7 ``But if the man does not desire to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, `My husband's brother refuses to establish a name for his brother in Israel; he is not willing to perform the duty of a husband's brother to me.'

8 ``Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak to him. And if he persists and says, `I do not desire to take her,'

9 then his brother's wife shall come to him in the sight of the elders, and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face; and she shall declare, `Thus it is done to the man who does not build up his brother's house.'

10 ``In Israel his name shall be called, `The house of him whose sandal is removed.'

11 ``If two men, a man and his countryman, are struggling together, and the wife of one comes near to deliver her husband from the hand of the one who is striking him, and puts out her hand and seizes his genitals,

12 then you shall cut off her hand; you shall not show pity.

13 ``You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a large and a small.

14 ``You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a small.

15 ``You shall have a full and just weight; you shall have a full and just measure, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you.

16 ``For everyone who does these things, everyone who acts unjustly is an abomination to the LORD your God.

17 ``Remember what Amalek did to you along the way when you came out from Egypt,

18 how he met you along the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear when you were faint and weary; and he did not fear God.

19 ``Therefore it shall come about when the LORD your God has given you rest from all your surrounding enemies, in the land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you must not forget.

Deuteronomy 26

1 ``Then it shall be, when you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance, and you possess it and live in it,

2 that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground which you bring in from your land that the LORD your God gives you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place where the LORD your God chooses to establish His name.

3 ``You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, `I declare this day to the LORD my God that I have entered the land which the LORD swore to our fathers to give us.'

4 ``Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the LORD your God.

5 ``You shall answer and say before the LORD your God, `My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt and sojourned there, few in number; but there he became a great, mighty and populous nation.

6 `And the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, and imposed hard labor on us.

7 `Then we cried to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction and our toil and our oppression;

8 and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with great terror and with signs and wonders;

9 and He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

10 `Now behold, I have brought the first of the produce of the ground which You, O LORD have given me.' And you shall set it down before the LORD your God, and worship before the LORD your God;

11 and you and the Levite and the alien who is among you shall rejoice in all the good which the LORD your God has given you and your household.

12 ``When you have finished paying all the tithe of your increase in the third year, the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the orphan and to the widow, that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.

13 ``You shall say before the LORD your God, `I have removed the sacred portion from my house, and also have given it to the Levite and the alien, the orphan and the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me; I have not transgressed or forgotten any of Your commandments.

14 `I have not eaten of it while mourning, nor have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor offered any of it to the dead. I have listened to the voice of the LORD my God; I have done according to all that You have commanded me.

15 `Look down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel, and the ground which You have given us, a land flowing with milk and honey, as You swore to our fathers.'

16 ``This day the LORD your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul.

17 ``You have today declared the LORD to be your God, and that you would walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments and His ordinances, and listen to His voice.

18 ``The LORD has today declared you to be His people, a treasured possession, as He promised you, and that you should keep all His commandments;

19 and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, for praise, fame, and honor; and that you shall be a consecrated people to the LORD your God, as He has spoken."

Deuteronomy 27

1 Then Moses and the elders of Israel charged the people, saying, ``Keep all the commandments which I command you today.

2 ``So it shall be on the day when you cross the Jordan to the land which the LORD your God gives you, that you shall set up for yourself large stones and coat them with lime

3 and write on them all the words of this law, when you cross over, so that you may enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you.

4 ``So it shall be when you cross the Jordan, you shall set up on Mount Ebal, these stones, as I am commanding you today, and you shall coat them with lime.

5 ``Moreover, you shall build there an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones; you shall not wield an iron tool on them.

6 ``You shall build the altar of the LORD your God of uncut stones, and you shall offer on it burnt offerings to the LORD your God;

7 and you shall sacrifice peace offerings and eat there, and rejoice before the LORD your God.

8 ``You shall write on the stones all the words of this law very distinctly."

9 Then Moses and the Levitical priests spoke to all Israel, saying, ``Be silent and listen, O Israel! This day you have become a people for the LORD your God.

10 ``You shall therefore obey the LORD your God, and do His commandments and His statutes which I command you today."

11 Moses also charged the people on that day, saying,

12 ``When you cross the Jordan, these shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin.

13 ``For the curse, these shall stand on Mount Ebal: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.

14 ``The Levites shall then answer and say to all the men of Israel with a loud voice,

15 `Cursed is the man who makes an idol or a molten image, an abomination to the LORD, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.' And all the people shall answer and say, `Amen.'

16 `Cursed is he who dishonors his father or mother.' And all the people shall say, `Amen.'

17 `Cursed is he who moves his neighbor's boundary mark.' And all the people shall say, `Amen.'

18 `Cursed is he who misleads a blind person on the road.' And all the people shall say, `Amen.'

19 `Cursed is he who distorts the justice due an alien, orphan, and widow.' And all the people shall say, `Amen.'

20 `Cursed is he who lies with his father's wife, because he has uncovered his father's skirt.' And all the people shall say, `Amen.'

21 `Cursed is he who lies with any animal.' And all the people shall say, `Amen.'

22 `Cursed is he who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father or of his mother.' And all the people shall say, `Amen.'

23 `Cursed is he who lies with his mother-in-law.' And all the people shall say, `Amen.'

24 `Cursed is he who strikes his neighbor in secret.' And all the people shall say, `Amen.'

25 `Cursed is he who accepts a bribe to strike down an innocent person.' And all the people shall say, `Amen.'

26 `Cursed is he who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.' And all the people shall say, `Amen.'

Acts 2:14-36

After being called by Jesus, Peter immediately left his fishing career to lead a life of discipleship and service. The man was far from perfect, but we can learn much from his transformation.

When Jesus asked the disciples who they believed He was, Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16). Similarly, our words and actions should proclaim to those around us that we trust in Jesus as the Messiah and we belong to Him. The basis for our identity—in public and in private—ought to be that we are His followers.

After Christ’s arrest, Peter’s faith faltered. Just as the Lord had predicted, the apostle refused three times to acknowledge their relationship. The disciple wept bitterly about what he’d done (Matt. 26:69-75). But following the resurrection, Jesus forgave Peter and then called him to love the “sheep” (John 21:15-17). After being filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Peter began his ministry by sharing the gospel with thousands of people. (See Acts 2:6-11; Acts 2:41.) Through God’s power, many were saved.

Peter is an example of the type of person our Father can use—someone with strengths and weaknesses, who learns from mistakes and is surrendered to the Lord for His purposes. Have you committed yourself to following God’s plan for your life?

Bible in One Year: Deuteronomy 24-27

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