July 18, 2026

Daily Devotional

The Angels Over the Cross:

Obedience Unto Death!

Imagine the scene at Calvary: Jesus, the sinless Son of God, nailed to a rough wooden Cross, bleeding and dying in agony for the sins of the world. Hovering above Him in perfect formation were 72,000 mighty angels, their wings outspread, swords drawn and ready. They awaited only His command. One word from their Commander, and they would have swept down, rescued the Messiah, and unleashed judgment upon a rebellious world. Yet Jesus spoke with divine resolve: “No. This is My calling!” (See Matthew 26:53). The angels held back.

In that moment of supreme power withheld, the eternal plan of redemption unfolded. Jesus could have called those legions instantly, as He reminded Peter in the garden. But He chose the Cross. He who spoke galaxies into existence submitted to nails, thorns, and the wrath of God against sin. He bore our guilt, our shame, our separation from the Father. The angels stood in stunned witness as the Creator died for His creation.

Without that willing death, there would be no salvation. No empty tomb. No forgiveness. No open door into Heaven. The blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin permanently (Hebrews 10:4). Only the spotless Lamb of God could pay the infinite price. “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him” (Isaiah 53:5, TLB). Jesus’ cry, “It is finished!” (John 19:30), echoed through eternity. The barrier between holy God and sinful man was torn in two.

Today, that same obedient love reaches across time to you and me. The angels did not rescue Him so that He could rescue us. Because He died and rose again, we who repent and trust in Him receive eternal life. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, TLB).

Let us never take lightly the cost of our salvation. The 72,000 angels remind us of the power Jesus laid down. May we respond with wholehearted surrender, daily taking up our own Cross to follow Him. What amazing love! What matchless grace! Jesus’ “No” to rescue became our “Yes” to Heaven!

Amen!

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If you have questions, please call the 24-Hour BGEA Prayer Line at:

(855) 255-PRAY.

CONTINUE:

Let us Praise Him Daily!

A good way to learn to Praise God is to memorize the first 6 Verses of Psalms 148:

1 Praise the Lord, O heavens! Praise Him from the skies!

²Praise Him, all His angels, all the armies of heaven.

³Praise Him, sun and moon and all you twinkling stars.

⁴Praise Him, skies above. Praise Him, vapors high above the clouds.

⁵Let everything He has made give praise to Him. For He issued His command, and they came into being;

^{6 H}e established them forever and forever. His orders will never be revoked.

PLEASE read the last 6 Chapters of Psalms: 145-150 so that you will learn how to Praise God like David did!

If you don’t want to get your Bible, Here they all are, just click on each Chapter and I will read them to you:

PSALMS 145 PSALMS 146 PSALMS 147 PSALMS148 PSALMS 149 PSALMS 150

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JESUS IS:

THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH,

THE LEADER,

THE ORIGINATOR,

THE LORD & MASTER,

THE SUPREME LEADER,

OUR HOPE,

1ST BORN FROM THE DEAD WITH AN IMMORTAL BODY TO NEVER DIE AGAIN,

THE 1ST FRUITS OF THE RESURRECTION,

HE IS OUR FESTIVAL OF HOPE,

OUR PARDON,

GIVEN 1ST PLACE IN EVERYTHING,

HAS BEEN EXALTED AS SUPREME OVER EVERYTHING,

IS ENOUGH,

THE FULLNESS OF GOD DWELLS IN US THROUGH JESUS,

JESUS HAS BROUGHT US INTO HARMONY WITH GOD,

HE HAS BROKERED A PEACE TREATY BETWEEN GOD & MAN,

YOU WERE BORN ON THE WRONG SIDE, BUT BY ACCEPTING JESUS

YOU ARE ON THE RIGHT SIDE NOW,

YOU ARE BEYOND REPROACH,

JESUS WAS THE SOLUTION BEFORE YOU HAD A SIN PROBLEM,

NEVER GET OVER WHAT JESUS HAS DONE FOR YOU!

NOW:

THE PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH:

TO TEACH US TO LEAD OTHERS TO CHRIST!

AMEN!

(You might want to copy those down and memorize them!)

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DAILY BIBLE READING:

>1. Chapter for the DAY in Proverbs;

>2. PLUS: 1 NEW Chapter from the Old Testament AND

>3. PLUS: 1 NEW Chapter from the New Testament Daily:

Chapter 18 in Proverbs for today: (JULY 18 (MT) (ESV)

18 A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire;
He rages against all ^[a]wise judgment.

²A fool has no delight in understanding,
But in expressing his own heart.

³When the wicked comes, contempt comes also;
And with dishonor comes reproach.

⁴The words of a man’s mouth are deep waters;
The wellspring of wisdom is a flowing brook.

⁵It is not good to show partiality to the wicked,
Or to overthrow the righteous in judgment.

⁶A fool’s lips enter into contention,
And his mouth calls for blows.
⁷A fool’s mouth is his destruction,
And his lips are the snare of his soul.
⁸The words of a ^[b]talebearer are like ^[c]tasty trifles,
And they go down into the ^[d]inmost body.

⁹He who is slothful in his work
Is a brother to him who is a great destroyer.

¹⁰The name of the Lord is a strong tower;
The righteous run to it and are ^[e]safe.
¹¹The rich man’s wealth is his strong city,
And like a high wall in his own esteem.

¹²Before destruction the heart of a man is haughty,
And before honor is humility.

¹³He who answers a matter before he hears it,
It is folly and shame to him.

¹⁴The spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness,
But who can bear a broken spirit?

¹⁵The heart of the prudent acquires knowledge,
And the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.

¹⁶A man’s gift makes room for him,
And brings him before great men.

¹⁷The first one to plead his cause seems right,
Until his neighbor comes and examines him.

¹⁸Casting lots causes contentions to cease,
And keeps the mighty apart.

¹⁹A brother offended is harder to win than a strong city,
And contentions are like the bars of a castle.

²⁰A man’s stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit of his mouth;
From the produce of his lips he shall be filled.

²¹Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
And those who love it will eat its fruit.

²²He who finds a wife finds a good thing,
And obtains favor from the Lord.

²³The poor man uses entreaties,
But the rich answers roughly.

²⁴A man who has friends ^[f]must himself be friendly,
But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Footnotes

Proverbs 18:1 sound wisdom
Proverbs 18:8 gossip or slanderer
Proverbs 18:8 A Jewish tradition wounds
Proverbs 18:8 Lit. rooms of the belly
Proverbs 18:10 secure, lit. set on high
Proverbs 18:24 So with Gr. mss., Syr., Tg., Vg.; MT may come to ruin

CHAPTER 53 ISAIAH for today: (JULY 18 (JJ) (ESV)

53 Who has believed our message
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
²He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
    and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
³He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

⁴Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

⁷He was oppressed and afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
⁸By oppression^[a] and judgment he was taken away.
    Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
    for the transgression of my people he was punished.^[b]
⁹He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
    and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
    nor was any deceit in his mouth.

¹⁰Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
    and though the Lord makes^[c] his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
    and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
¹¹After he has suffered,
    he will see the light of life^[d] and be satisfied^[e];
by his knowledge^[f] my righteous servant will justify many,
    and he will bear their iniquities.
¹²Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,^[g]
    and he will divide the spoils with the strong,^[h]
because he poured out his life unto death,
    and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
    and made intercession for the transgressors.

Footnotes

Isaiah 53:8 Or From arrest
Isaiah 53:8 Or generation considered / that he was cut off from the land of the living, / that he was punished for the transgression of my people?
Isaiah 53:10 Hebrew though you make
Isaiah 53:11 Dead Sea Scrolls (see also Septuagint); Masoretic Text does not have the light of life.
Isaiah 53:11 Or (with Masoretic Text) ¹¹He will see the fruit of his suffering / and will be satisfied
Isaiah 53:11 Or by knowledge of him
Isaiah 53:12 Or many
Isaiah 53:12 Or numerous

Revelation 04

for today: (JULY 18 (NN) ESV)

4 After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” ²At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. ³And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. ⁴Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. ⁵From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings^[a] and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, ⁶and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.

And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: ⁷the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. ⁸And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!”

⁹And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, ¹⁰the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

¹¹“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.”

Footnotes

Revelation 4:5 Or voices, or sounds

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Please Remember:

“CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS

AND ROSE FROM THE DEAD!”

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The Steps to Salvation:

> Repent: Repentance means that you are turning away from sin to turn to Christ. It does NOT mean that you will be perfect.

> Believe/Receive: Salvation is through Faith in Jesus and by the Grace of God. Believing means putting your Faith in Jesus and receiving forgiveness of sin.

>Walk in the Newness of Life: Jesus died so that we might live. We walk in the Newness of Life being Born Again by His Blood.

Additionally, if you feel you need someone to Pray for you,

please call the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association,

24 Hours/Day, at: 1+855 255 PRAY (This is the same as: 1+855 255 7729).

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GOD THE FATHER IS THE SOVEREIGN KING
AND CREATOR OF THE ENTIRE
UNIVERSE AND BEYOND!

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