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Top X August 6, 2025 Devotional

by David Joynt on August 06, 2025


JOHN 8:44 | 44 You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Another reason to obey the ninth commandment has to do with the spiritual battle that is occurring all around us.

 

Jesus speaks with absolute and chilling clarity on this. Deception is the chief weapon of the Evil One, who aims to harm us individually and to destroy our communities. To that end he promotes lies about God, lies about what is good versus what is evil, lies about us. When we feel useless or valueless or unlovable, that voice inside is the Prince of Darkness.

 

When we give in to the temptation to deceive, to misrepresent, to obscure things, we align ourselves with evil purposes against holy ones.

 

There is no truly neutral ground in God’s battle with evil. Do you agree?

 

 

Gracious God,

You are the Way, the truth, and the Life. Help me to walk on paths of righteousness, pursue truth in thoughts and words, and enhance the life that never ends.

Amen.

 

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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