Thursday, February 23, 2012

False happiness


2/23/2012
Proverbs 31:7- “Let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.”

Interpretation: King Lemuel’s mother is telling him to avoid drunkenness and to leave the drinks for people who are perishing and in anguish. This verse is interesting because it hits the nail on the head of why people decide to drink in the first place. When my brother and I were young, we took a trip into Boston with our parents to do something fun for the day. I remember that was our first exposure to homelessness. My brother was so upset and moved by what he saw as, even at his young age, an injustice in the world. I wanted to give them money but my mother came up with the idea to go into Boston the following weekend, and pass out sandwiches in snack bags to different people we came across. What I didn’t understand until I was older was that we were avoiding giving them money with the presumption that they were going to go and spend their money on alcohol. People drink to forget their poverty. People drink to forget that they are miserable and empty and incomplete. It is crazy how the enemy has the world running in circles, drinking to forget their poverty, and staying poor because of drinking. Drinking to forget misery, but staying miserable because of getting drunk. When I was a young teenager and began to drink myself I developed a hardened heart towards those who refused to give money to the homeless based on the assumption they would just blow it on alcohol. It was as if I almost knew that if the money stayed in my own pocket it was definitely getting spent on alcohol, and so I gave those who had nothing the benefit of the doubt. I now see that my mother had her heart right. Give people what they need as to not enable deceitful hearts. But now I know something even deeper that people need, beyond food, water and shelter. I am done with this circle the devil has my friends trapped in, ruining their lives without even realizing. They are being kept hopeless at worst, and mediocre at best. It’s as if they know that drinking is not the answer to their problems, yet they remain ignorant to all of the problems that it causes that they wouldn’t have had to drink to forget, had they decided to remain sober in the first place. Sin is enticing, deceitful, and its wages are death. And I am abhorred and saddened by the control it has over the lives of my dearest friends.  

Application: I will write out a list of my friends and family members who struggle with alcohol issues and wake up ½ hour early tomorrow to begin my morning by praying for God to open their hearts, minds, and eyes to the destructive way their living their lives + to draw them closer to Him + His healing love.

Reckon the old man dead


2/22/2012
Proverbs 31:6- “Give beer to those who are perishing, wine to those who are in anguish.”

Interpretation: I don’t believe, due to the context of the rest of the Bible, that God is implying here that instead of handing out money and food to the homeless people on the city streets of Boston, we should go and buy them a 6 pack or a cheap bottle of wine. This verse is the proposition of a young king’s mother for him to understand that he shouldn’t be drinking while in rule; it is her telling him to leave the sin for the sinners. She has already told him that it is not for kings to get drunk, lest they forget what the law decrees and deprive someone of their rights. As someone who desires to be a true disciple of Christ, I have decided not to drink a sip of alcohol while being age 21, lest I set aside the grace that God gave me and put out of mind the importance of the call he has placed on my life, and miss an opportunity to be used by him even for just one night. It is not a good thing that my friends who don’t understand God’s love drink alcohol, but it would be even worse if I, who has been saved by grace, went on to continue drinking and living like someone who is perishing or in anguish. That would lower my effects to be used as a witnessing tool for building the Kingdom of God. This scripture doesn’t mean that I should buy my friends drinks or condone their actions in any way, but is there for more of a reminder to me that I need to leave the sin for the sinners, those who don’t know Christ and thus know no different way of life. My life is being radically changed and it would send out a mixed message and gigantic stumbling block for my friends to see Christ’s beauty in my life if I continued to live in the way that they live. God calls us to be holy and set apart, and so that is what I desire for myself.

Application: I will go through my pictures on facebook and delete any photo of me drinking alcohol in the past. It is not a correct representation of who I am any longer, falsely portrays the joy of a life being lived only for Christ, and doesn’t show my life as sanctified. I am friends with younger kids and family and don’t want to be seen as a hypocrite, even if the pictures are old. 

Vow


2/21/2012
Proverbs 31:5- “Lest they drink and forget what the law decrees, and deprive the oppressed of their rights.”

Interpretation: Why should kings and rulers not get drunk with wine? This scripture says lest they forget what the law decrees, and deprive the oppressed of their rights. Romans 6:14 says, “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.” We no longer live under law; we live under grace. But a king forgetting the law and a Christian forgetting their grace can both equally deprive the oppressed of their rights. Say a king was to drink and forget a law that said a man should no longer hang for committing a certain crime, so in his stupor decreed the mans death anyways. He would be depriving that man of his right to live by the standard of the law. I remember one night as a freshman in college drinking with a group of friends, and we had just met some new people who lived in a different building. I was sitting with a person who I had gotten to know a little bit, and all of the sudden just started to feel convicted that I was drinking when I had the love of God and no one else seemed to. I looked at my friend and started telling him about God and about how real He is and how He died for our sins. While I don’t doubt that some seeds were planted, I was drunk and rambling. I had gotten drunk and forgotten about the grace that God had given me in my life, and in turn I was depriving my oppressed friend the right to hear about the truth and the love of God. Being drunk puts God on the back burner. It says, “I’m a believer, but not right now.” And forgetting that grace that God gave us, lapsing to serve God first and foremost in our everyday lives, even just deciding, “I’ve worked hard today, I deserve it,” is robbing God from a night that He could use us for His glory. It is choosing to treat our selves while keeping the oppressed locked in the chains of the enemy.

Application: I turn 21 in Costa Rica this year, and this is the year that all of my girl friends also turn 21. I will commit to not drinking alcohol for my whole year of being 21, to be a witness to my friends who do not know the Lord, and I will pray for each of them to understand that drinking is a life decision that leads them to emptiness. Anyone can hold me accountable, and every time I’m asked about it I will give God all the glory for my decision. 

Drinking?


2/20/2012
Proverbs 31:4- “It is not for kings, O Lemuel- not for kings to get drunk with wine, not for rulers to crave beer.”

Interpretation: It is not for kings to get drunk with wine…and it is not for rulers to crave beer? Let me think about this. In America we have kings without absolute jurisdiction over others- called celebrities. Their power doesn’t make laws but it certainly can win OJ Simpson a trial or keep Lindsay Lohan out of jail, both of which aren’t a stranger to getting drunk with wine. There is a collective family of rulers made up of famous people who influence this world so dominantly and seem to have a subliminal authority over society and the way it runs. And last I checked- getting drunk with wine was top of their to do list. I think about junior high- when kids in my grade first began experimenting with alcohol. There was a group of rulers who our whole grade subconsciously looked to and yearned for- they were called the popular kids- who everyone wanted to be and whose opinions seemed to matter the most. And they also seemed to crave beer every weekend. Why is it not okay for kings and rulers to get drunk or desire to be intoxicated? What I have learned growing older is something very eerie but very important. I always knew the older kids in high school, they were who I would hang out with and who I wanted to impress. I lived a lot of my life full steam in the wrong direction, but there was one thing I forgot; There are younger kids watching me. Younger kids? I barely paid attention to the kids in the grades below me, I was too busy trying to live my life and live up to what the older kids were doing. But that was exactly the point. I was being led in the wrong direction by celebrities and TV and what the world told me and certain kids in school, but on top of that, I was unknowingly leading astray all of the kids who were watching me live, and I had no idea I was doing it. I know that God gave me leadership abilities, and the last thing that I would ever want to do is think it is an okay idea for me to put my guard down for one second and be less impactful for Christ and decide to just have a little drink because there are people who are watching me and it is my desire to continue to point people in the direction of Christ’s love and truth and joy. I will not be like Brittney Spears or the popular group in school or how I used to be ever again, with God’s help I will be an intentional king, an intentional ruler. My kingdom may not be very big and I may not rule much but I plan to encourage those who look to me and not be counted as a hypocrite for drinking on the job. I’ve had my fun with that.

Application: It was my application last week to write three letters but I was sick in bed three days so I wasn’t able to. I will write those letters this week, now with more of a mindset that I have influenced these people greatly in the wrong direction, and these letters should show them the light. 

Love is success


2/17/12
1 Corinthians 13:8- “Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.”

Interpretation: Paul is writing to the church in Corinth about the necessity of love in spiritual gifts. Love never fails. That should be on a billboard driving into every major city in America. Everyone on this earth is seeking how to succeed, and now we know for sure how to never fail. LOVE! What? This is great. And it really makes sense- people will fight for peace and they demand love from others- never understanding that love starts from Christ living within us and sometimes love has to “drive a nail into it’s own hand.” Love is the most important gift of all because it is eternal! As of today, prophecy and tongues and knowledge are what the world is after. This verse is so clear that our objective as Christians should be love, not any other mystical gift. Prophecy and tongues can both be used in the wrong way and make one seem puffed up, or actually a little crazy. Knowledge is completely abused in our nation- putting such a high value on “knowledge” that in the end always changes and is never satisfying. Aside from abuse, they really are all good things because they are gifts from our good God, but when Jesus returns they will surely pass away. There will be no more need for prophecy, for everything will have happened. Tongues will be of no significance either, and Christ will take place of all the knowledge we want and need in our minds and hearts the second He brings us home. But love- can never be abused, because love never fails, and it will never pass away. We will be dwelling in love for eternity.

Application: I will write a letter to a very special person in my life today and tell them how much I love them because of God’s love. Caitie will hold me accountable. I will pray I get the right words as I write it so that the love is clear. 

Lovee


1 Corinthians 13:4- “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.”

Interpretation: Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. Whoa. “I love you” used to be more of a slang term or a catch phrase amongst my group of friends. Something that was just sort of tacked on to the end of every sentence, good or bad, like, “Ok bye, love you,” or, “you’re stupid I love you.” Love was my college friends group motto- we were all about it and wanted to spread it to everyone. But it was only inch deep. It became, “I love you, but I really love you when you drive us around. I only love you when you act this way, I really love you when I’m partying but after that you’re on your own.” Impatience, irritation, jealousy, bragging, and pride became the new focus of my group of friends, and certainly my own heart. We were all lured in by this phrase, “I love you,” but then slowly eaten alive by each other and turned back out into the world alone. People like to say “I love you,” but without knowing what love is, how can it be so? And without knowing where it comes from, how can it be managed? Without understanding why we have the ability to love each other and care for one another and without understanding who it is that loves us unconditionally and cares for us, how can we be bold enough to even claim the sentence “I love you” for ourselves? It should be off limits. My “I love yous” turned to “I want you, I fear you, I use you, and I hate you.” It is interesting that my whole group of friends started off eating ecstasy and running around campus telling strangers they were awesome and loving each other, and by the end of my year and a half at college only three or four of us out of a group of over 10 were not full-blown heroin addicts. It is funny how people start off thinking they are living for love, and realize at the end that they are just living for themselves. Funny, and so sad. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. God pulled me out of this fake conditional affection bubble, and showed me love. He revealed to me His patience with me, and His kindness. He didn’t do it in an envious way or proud or rubbing it in my face that He saved me and that I am useless without Him. He just did it in love. I am still praying for all of my college friends who I can honestly say that I genuinely love so much, now that I know more of the definition. So God is reminding me to be with them how He was with me. Be patient with them, they don’t know the Lord yet so keep being kind. And don’t let feelings of resentment or pride spring up, and definitely don’t start thinking I’m so special because He revealed Himself to me first; That’s just His grace. They may not fully understand love because they don’t understand how loved they are by Jesus, but they are definitely people who want love, and who God would use for great things, if they understood that.

Application: I sent 5 letters out last week, but this week I have three specific people on my heart, all friends from college. I will write and mail out these three letters by Friday, and be praying all week for God to soften their hearts and draw them closer to Him. 

Who do we serve?


2/10/2012
John 8:35- “A slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.”

Interpretation:  Jesus said that everyone who sins, is a slave to sin (v.34). Romans 3:23-24 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” So everyone who sins is a slave to sin, and all have sinned, therefore all are enslaved, and all need set free. 1 John 3:1 writes, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” Later in 1 Peter 3:5 he says, “But you know he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.” Everyone is a slave to sin whether they recognize it or not, but Jesus came so that we won’t have to be slaves any longer. He came to testify for the truth that will set us free. Slaves may spend their whole lives serving their master, but they never elevate to a significant sect in the family. A son, even if he is a prodigal, will always by right have an enduring place they belong to with their relatives. As a slave of sin, going through life bound to spiritual chains we ignore and refuse to ask Jesus to unlock, we have no permanent place in the family. We are just here on fallen earth for a moment and then our souls get whisked away to suffer forever in a place that was never intended for anyone but Satan and his demons. But as a child of God- which we become after accepting Jesus’ gift of life to us, we may stumble, but we will always have a place with him. And in the end, he will call us home to him.

Application: I have five letters I have written containing small testimonies about the work God has been doing in my heart since I arrived here. Four of the five people receiving letters are unsaved. They are slaves to their sin and don’t even recognize it. I will mail them today and pray that God draws them closer to him and uses my words in whatever way he sees fit for the sake of setting captives free and expanding the kingdom of God. 

Slavery


2/9/2012
John 8:34- “Jesus replied, ‘I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.’”

Interpretation: Well- plenty of lies running around in my head apparently. I don’t know how much God loves me + don’t understand my value to Him. I never admitted or confessed or realized that sleeping with my ex- boyfriend was sin and now that I understand that I have been a slave to this sin since the night it happened, I was able to ask for forgiveness and God is setting me free. I am being set free of the deep-rooted lie that I am only good for sex. In my group of friends I was the last one to be with a boy (and I say boy because they certainly aren’t men), and I haven’t done, by God’s grace, half the things they have with half the people. In my mind on the horizontal playing field I was doing pretty good. But the vertical was chewing me up and spitting me back out again, spinning me into a cycle of believing in a lie, and chasing after the answers in the wrong places. I want to focus on myself again. And I don’t mean my self, my flesh, my wants and egotistical desires; I am just talking about who God made me to be. God made me good, MY sin messed that up. I am asking God to restore that innocence that was stolen from me by a wolf in sheep’s clothing. I have been a slave to a sin I didn’t even know I struggled with, and guilt that I didn’t even know I was bearing. I want to be set free and Christ is doing it by revealing to me my worth in Him. I don’t need to be anything I am not, God loves me the way He made me. Truth is, He made me a good girl. And I believed a lie that I was not good enough. And I have been a slave to the sin I used to call “fun,” thinking I am free and healed, but being dictated by a lie I bought into five years ago and controlled by the pain of the sin that lie lead me to. And I am giving Him these issues knowing that He promises to make chaste beauty out of my ashes. We all have ashes. Lets address them and let God take them. We all have our crosses to bear; my heart was ripped out of my chest as a girl. And now as the woman God needs me to be, I need to let God heal me and seek Him and be the virtuous young lady He intended for me, I need to let Him make me clean like He promises to do. My spirit is being set free by Jesus Christ! Without Jesus we might be able to make these heavy chains more comfortable, masking or forgetting our shame with anything that will fit the vacuum, but He is the only one with the keys to completely liberate us. It’s forgiveness, it’s truth, it’s freedom, it’s Christ.

Application: I am praying for God to fix my heart. I want to be genuine. I want to be set free. 1 Peter 3:3-4 “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.” Amen.

Freedom


2/8/2012
John 8:33- “They answered him, ‘we are Abraham’s descendents and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?’”

Interpretation: What is love without hate? What is peace without war? What is freedom without oppression? How can we desire to be set free if we don’t even recognize that we are being tormented? The Jewish people Jesus is talking to are reminding Jesus, as if he forgot, that they are descendents from Abraham. They are children of God, and they are not slaves of anyone. But Jesus tells them that they still need freedom. I remember when I was young watching something on TV about a man who would lash his own back in order to show God that he loved him and wanted to endure the same pain as him. This is not Biblical, unless we start talking about demonic influence. Jesus came to set this man free, he bore the sin, the pain, the guilt, and the shame for us, so that if we ask to be forgiven of our transgressions in his name- we will truly be set free of them! Not everyone is as extreme as this man in the physical sense, but some struggle with warfare in their minds or emotional toil in their hearts; beating themselves up, and wrestling with confusion or disgrace, all a result of not knowing the truth (v.32), or, not truly knowing Jesus for who he is. I can definitely say that, while I have never been a slave to anyone, I can take the less intense path than the man who disfigured himself. Mental slavery. Not fully knowing the truth, not really knowing Jesus in his completeness has allowed Satan to grab on to strongholds in my life to hold me back and repress areas of my life that God can make full and beautiful and complete when I find the truth that conquers the lies floating around in my mind.

Application: I will pray today and ask God to reveal to me a lie that I believe about myself, and will then find a scripture to memorize that dominates it. 

Truth


2/7/2012
John 8:32- “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Interpretation: Think of Pontius Pilate’s infamous question “what is truth?” In John 14:6 Jesus states “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” So Jesus is truth. So Pontius Pilate is really asking here, “what is Jesus?” Some say your truth is your truth and my truth is my truth. This translates in God’s eyes to your god is your god and my god is my god. Some say two things that completely contradict each other are truth, equating to God can be evil and Satan can be not so bad. Relativism. Good people go to heaven. There are no absolutes. There is no God. Satan did something to our generation to twist our beliefs on truth. What he really accomplished by doing this is getting a generation to twist their beliefs on Jesus and on God from who they really are. We disguise our philosophies with fancy scientific terms, but there is an underlying spiritual aspect to every stance we take. Truth is simple. Truth is, when the truth is counted out as an option there is hopelessness, depression, and despair. So if we cling to Jesus’ teaching we will know Him. And He shall make us free. And what is freedom if we deny we are in bondage? People want to say that they are free, yet we ache from the inside out until we come to know truth for what it is. There has to be an absolute truth in this world. Even people saying, “There is no truth” contradict themselves, for if there was no truth, wouldn’t it be true that there was no truth? People want to push the boundaries and ask “what is truth?” but at the same time there is something causing an anxiety in the inside of their hearts, pushing them to find truth, to find reality, to find purpose. Without truth we are lost, with no direction and no meaning in this world. Without Jesus, we are stuck in our chains, denying we’re even oppressed by something greater than what we can handle ourselves. So then why do we cry when there is an injustice done to us? We feel the pain of lies and the repercussions of denying truth daily. And only knowing the truth can set our souls free. Jesus holds the keys.

Application: I will pray about God showing me things I need to be set free of in my life, and memorize John 8:31-35 by the end of this week. I want to hold more of God’s dynamite truth in my heart because I desire my soul to be free. 

Abide

2/6/2012


John 8:31- “To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.”

Interpretation: Here Jesus is talking to some Jews who believed in Him. He is telling them it is not enough to simply believe in Him if they want to be His disciples, but that they must cling to Him and His teaching and never let it leave their hearts. To be a real follower of Christ it is not enough to just believe in Him. As we’ve heard it said- even Satan believed in Jesus. But to be a real, true disciple of Christ we must continually abide in Him as written in John 15:6 where Jesus tells us, “If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers: such branches are picked up thrown into the fire and burned.” and, as written in Mark 34, we need to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and then follow Him. I tried to be a follower of Christ for years. But I was just a lost believer- floating in the fast lane of the world not realizing it was impossible for God’s word to take root in my life as I was constantly ruining the soil of my heart. But I was breaking the truth of 1 John 6-7 where it says, “If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, purifies us from all sin.” Jesus makes it very clear to us that in order to truly follow Him we need to deny ourselves and take up our cross. In Luke 14:27 He says, “And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Being a disciple isn’t just a one-day thing. The 12 disciples of Jesus held to Him for three and a half years, and when each new day began they needed to cling just as tightly to Him as they did the day before. We don’t have Jesus walking with us today physically, but we have His word, which is interpreted by His Holy Spirit. We need to cling to the word of God and abide in Him daily in order to correctly follow Him and be His disciples.

Application: I will IBS my daily devotion scripture tonight to hold more of God’s word in my heart, to be a better disciple of Christ. 

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Beautiful


2/3/2012
Acts 3:10- “They recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.”

Interpretation: They recognized her as the same girl who used to go out partying and were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to her. They recognized him as the same boy who used to get in fist fights every opportunity he could. They recognized her as the same girl who used to struggle and suffer daily with an eating disorder and distorted body image. They recognized him as the boy who would put a needle in his arm. They recognized her as the girl who would dye her hair blue, self mutilate, and pierce anything she could. They recognized him as the same guy who would be shy and quiet, keeping to himself, stuck in his own head. The girl who would sleep around. The boy who was abusive. The judgmental religious one. The high school outcast. The alcoholic. All of these people are easily recognizable from the outside; They were ALL sitting outside of the beauty. Day after day, wasting away. But then something happened to them that filled everyone with wonder and amazement. It wasn’t rehab, it wasn’t getting a new job, it wasn’t making more friends or becoming more popular. It wasn’t winning the lottery, thinking positive, or buying a puppy. These things don’t make those things disappear in our hearts. So what happened to these people? What happened to the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful? People were filled with wonder and amazement at this man who didn’t even have the ability to walk. How did this happen? He was the same man - but something had changed about him that was undeniable. He was healed, and he held this incomparable joy. He received Jesus Christ by someone willing to share with Him. Peter offered this freedom to a man who people had probably passed by, judged, overlooked, sold short, or forgotten about his whole life. Who knows what the Lord would do if we shared Christ with certain people. People are sitting around, day after day, lame and begging for something to take the pain of a hopeless life away. And we have the answer. And why do people wonder and amaze at 180 degree changed lives? Because they are truly wonderful and amazing!

Application: I’m going to write a letter to my aunt and uncle thanking them for the care package and explaining more of what God is doing in my life, and pray for them to receive it with soft fertile hearts.


Praise God!


2/2/2012
Acts 3:9- “When all the people saw him walking and praising God…”

Interpretation: A crippled man who had been sitting outside of the gate called Beautiful every single day to beg from those going into the temple courts was making a scene. He had just been healed by his faith in Jesus Christ and was now jumping and following Peter and praising God. I wonder how this man was going about praising God. I am sure he was ecstatic. The temple he sat outside day after day he was now running about inside! And the people who would see him begging there now saw him walking and leaping. I am certain God was getting all of the praise he deserved. I wonder what this would look like in today’s terms. Maybe he would go running all around his home church, hang out the car window driving home, and post a facebook status update “I CAN WALK PRAISE GOD.” I think about how I give praises to God and who I do it in front of. I always try to give the credit to God when these amazing things happen but this verse further encourages me to let go of any thought of man and bring full-unleashed glory to God in the big things, as well as the little things. Thinking about the things that our Heavenly Father has done for me puts any trial I go though into perspective. And God deserves our praise forever. Eternity was created to give God fitting praise! All of the “others” who saw the lame man jumping were challenged to reconsider Jesus Christ in their own lives, just as I pray others who see my life in Christ are challenged to accept there has been a change- and desire it for themselves.

Application: It’s not going to be original, but I’m going to begin an answered prayer list. I have a prayer journal with so many little prayers answered in it just in the four weeks I have been here, but this will be a big list for the big things throughout my life. It will help lift me up and put God back in the place that He deserves- more than worthy of our praise. 

Give glory where it's due


2/1/2012
Acts 3:8- “He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God.”

Interpretation: This lame man is no longer sitting in the dirt; he was healed by belief in the name of Jesus Christ. Once this man received his deepest desires by his faith in Christ, Peter’s response to the lead of the Holy Spirit, and God’s goodness, he didn’t just keep the miracle to himself. First note, he jumped to his feet- he didn’t hesitate to believe that God wanted to heal him or that God had the power to heal him. I think often times I can be the epitome of this man: sitting around, asking for something I can use, but secretly desiring the Lord to do something huge in my life. But I want to be waiting faithfully for that day when God actually comes through with answering my biggest prayer, and when he does, I want everyone to know about it! This man went into the temple courts that he had been sitting outside of maybe his whole life. He was walking, and jumping, and most importantly, praising God who healed him. He didn’t look at Peter as the answer to his problems, and he didn’t tell the people in the temple how great Peter was (although Peter was great). The glory went to God- it went to the right place- and as it says later in this passage the people were “filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.” God does great things in the lives of his people. First, I want to believe that He wants to do great things in my life. Second, I want to recognize when He is doing them and not miss my opportunities because of lack of faith, and third, when He does do something great and He blows my mind, I want to be positive to give all of the glory to Him, not to myself, not to the other people involved, not just to random chance, but to the one and only true God who performs miracles because He loves us.

Application: I will go to bed early tonight and do a devo I missed a few days ago before bed. More of the word- more of God’s perfect will in my vision. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.”

I love IBS


1/31/2012
Acts 3:7- “Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong.”

Interpretation: Peter took the lame man by the right hand to help him up, and immediately the man was able to stand strong by the name of Jesus. I wonder if this man had prayed about his disability. I wonder if he had countless nights laying in bed crying in shame, or maybe even begging God to take it from him. I wonder if, because he sat at the temple gates day after day, he had seen Peter, and heard of the apostles, and maybe even seen Jesus or witnessed a miracle. Somehow he knew enough to offer Peter his right hand at the right time. Sometimes I pray for very specific things that only God could align for me. I wonder – how often does he prepare to give them to me when I don’t reach my hand out to receive it in faith? The man could have thought, “This isn’t how God is going to heal me, he wouldn’t use this man Peter,” or, “This isn’t the way I imagined it happening.” God is so creative, and His thoughts are not our thoughts. He answers our prayers in amazing ways that we often can’t just sit around and think up, even though we do and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, as long as we recognize when he is answering our prayers right in front of our faces.

Application: I need to pray today if there is something He is doing for me that I’m missing, and then do my daily devotional again to get more time in His word. (“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”)

Faith


1/30/2012
Acts 3:6- “Then Peter said, ‘silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.’”

Interpretation: Here Peter is talking to a lame man who sat outside of the temple at the gate every day begging for money. When Peter approached the man he was quick to tell him that he did not have what he was asking for, but without hesitation he followed by saying something amazing. He commanded this man to get up and walk, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. This story is amazing. I wonder how often I have my hand stretched out to God for one certain thing day after day after day. And I think about the way I feel when I realize that I’m not going to get what I want. But then- out of nowhere- I get something so amazing that is not only what I need, but something that I would have wanted more than what I THOUGHT I wanted in the first place. I love the reaction of the lame man. He stands up. He could be offended by Paul’s command, or he could retreat into despair at his words. But there was something beautiful inside this lame man, something that knew the power of Jesus and took a step of faith without forethought. I want to be able to receive what God has for me, and actually recognize it when he is trying to hand it right to me!

Application: I will spend some extra time in the word by doing my daily devotion tonight. I will pray and write to God to continue revealing His will to me so that when small opportunities arises I will take them in confidence and faith.

Wee ahh Fammiily


1/272012
1 Corinthians 12:11- “All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.”

Interpretation: God gives each believer a gift just as he determines. They are all the gift of the same Holy Spirit, and are all given for the common good. Because God is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega, the great unchangeable I Am, He sees it all. He knows tomorrow as much as He knows yesterday, and will give gifts according to the common good of the body of Christ. The gifts of the Spirit evaluation showed that my highest gift was pastoral/shepherd, then evangelism, and then administration. My lowest gift was that of mercy while some others had a very high merciful score. It is easy to think, “wow, I wish I was higher on that one,” but this scripture makes it very clear that God is giving us these gifts as He determines. And only someone who is outside of time and sees what happens on earth as a whole could make a good judge of who gets what gift, seeing the needs of His kingdom before we were even created. Paul paints a picture in verse 14, which makes this clear saying, “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body.” These gifts were given for building up the church and empowering the body of believers so that when used correctly and with awareness in the one Holy Spirit, God receives all of the glory that He deserves.

Application: I want to pray to thank God for the gifts He gave me, and pray for them to become sharpened in the next two months. I will also pray and ask for mercy because I know if He gave me the heart of an evangelist administrative shepherd, I am going to need to learn how to step back and hear others out.

Yay


1/25/2012
1 Corinthians 12:7- “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”

Interpretation: The Holy Spirit gives each believer gifts for the purpose of building up the church. Paul says that they are each given for the common good. In verse 11 it says, “All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.” So God is giving us gifts as he sees fit for edifying the body and building the kingdom, and they are given to us for the common good. I like how everyone has different gifts, and how when used correctly there could be such a harmony in the body of Christ. This further encourages me to be joyful of the gifts of my brothers and sisters and helps deteriorates any jealousy in my heart. God knows what is best, and He gives his children gifts to work for the common good of bringing himself glory. Further on in 1 Corinthians 12:14 Paul says, “Now the body is not made up of one part but many.” And in verse 12:19-20 Paul writes, “If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.” It is easy to look at the different gifts of the other people around you, and someone who even may have the same gift but a sharper sense of how to use it in the Spirit, and get discouraged. These scriptures, however, show clearly that we all make up the body of Christ and play different but equally important roles, and God gives us these roles according to the common good of the body!

Application: We will take the gifts of the Spirit test tonight, when I find out what mine are I am going to pray to ask God to help me to refine them to be used for the common good and thank him for them.

What are my Gifts


1/24/2012
1 Corinthians 12:4- “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same spirit.”

Interpretation: The Holy Spirit gives us different kinds of gifts, but scripture says that they all come from the same spirit. It goes on to say in verse 6 that “there are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.” I think that this is important because it takes away from any opportunity man would have to take credit for any of the gifts and it takes away any right to boast that one gift is better than another. There are gifts of wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miraculous powers, prophecy, speaking in tongues, leadership, and teaching. These spiritual gifts, also called grace gifts (derived from the Greek word “charis” or, “charismata”) are just that, given to us by the grace of God. So whether someone is gifted with wisdom or healing, prophecy or knowledge, the same Spirit gives them all to us, so they are all equal and also equally bring glory to God. Paul proceeds to explain the body of Christ and how everyone plays a different role in the body, each equally important. In verse 26 he says, “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” Each of these gifts are given by the same God because of his grace and love for us. Each is vital to the body of Christ, and when they are used properly, with the understanding of their importance, God gets the glory he deserves.

Application: I don’t know what my spiritual gifts are. I am going to pray to ask God to reveal them to me. 

Woo-Hoo!


1/24/2012
God- you are so awesome. I pray that these messages can go out and your Holy Spirit can fall on those who you draw close to you. I pray that their hearts are softened and their eyes are opened to the truth and love that reigns here. Lord, I pray that you give my readers the strength to accept the teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness that your word provides for us. Thank you Father. They have no idea how much I love them, or how much you love them. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

God- you have set my soul FREE!!!!!!!!! God I thought that I understood life. I think I have always thought I have understood life. But you pulled me out of the DARK. Through you, everything makes sense. Lord you are LOVE. YOU ARE THE LOVE WE ARE ALL LOOKING FOR. YOU ARE THE TRUTH, THE MERCY, THE FORGIVENESS, THE LOVE, THE PEACE, THE WAY AND THE LIFE! Jesus! Please forgive me of all my sins. I AM A SINNAH SINNAH CHICKEN DINNA! But no joke it is serious the wages of sin is death. But Lord, you DIED for MY SIN. So that when I put my faith into you, I receive LIFE, instead of the death I deserve. This isn’t advanced algebra- this isn’t chemistry and it’s not complex. It is the simple one way plain bright powerful truth that is the dynamite to life and the salt to my mashed potatoes. God you make everything easy. And being a Christian in this life is HARD. But you have set me free- and my life is yours. Glorify yourself. Make yourself known. Save my friends. I wanna dance in heaven with my loved ones and my enemies for the rest of my life. God- you want everyone to win. It’s all about love it’s all about truth. It’s beautiful. It is the definition of beauty- God .. it’s you.. it’s always been you, and thank YOU that it will always be YOU. We as humans have such a solid understanding that there are animals and there are plants and we sit right on the top of the food chain. And when we see an ant hill we can either feed them a sugar cube or stamp them out. HA! We are on top of the world! But wait- God- you’re telling me that YOU are HIGHER than us??? Did you know we sent men to the moon?? We are pretty brilliant down here!! Oh wait you CREATED the moon??? THAT’S AWESOME. We have this pride deep rooted in our hearts from living in a world of hatred and rejection. But what do we have to be proud of that you haven’t given us?? So you can feed us sugar cubes or you can stamp us out. Ok- I’ll admit that because I don’t want us to be stamped out. And because it’s such a relief knowing that you’re going to be the one in charge of the sugar cubes too. You love us. We are itty bitty ants and you – the CREATOR of it all – even though we DENY you and say we DON’T BELIEVE in you (even though your proof of existence is inescapable) – and we SLANDER you and we DISOBEY you… YOU DIED FOR US???? What is this love that I can’t comprehend!!!!!! Now THAT’S true love. THAT’S poetry. THAT’S a good father. THAT’S a good God. You are HUGE. You are GOOD .you are ALL KNOWING. And LORD I LOVE MY FriENDS and family!!!!! Please magnify yourself through my life, change me Lord, make me more like you, God be GLAMEROUS through my life. Even though I am just dust. I am nothing and you are everything yet you died for me because you love me. HAHAH!!!!! This is the love everyone is looking for. You chose me to share it with others – so here I am Lord- send me. I love you!! God bless all readers!!! And yes- you are sinners! Don’t let your feelings or your pride get in the way of accepting that TRUTH that will SET YOU FREE! IM A SINNER! I NEED A SAVIOR! Now it all makes sense… God is just right here knocking at the doors of our hearts… knocking, knocking, knocking.. please let him in. Please get off facebook and let him in. Please stop using heroin and let him in. Please stop worshipping yourself or your friends or your relationship with your boyfriend and LET IN THIS WILD LOVE THAT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND. I am going to another country to minister to children who don’t even have enough food to eat. THIS IS AN ISSUE. Goodbye scituate white girl problems. The truth is beautiful. Just get your “self” out of the way of that. God is a lion. Unlock that cage. Don’t be stubborn. Don’t hesitate. The Bible says to come with child-like faith. CHILDREN are awesome. They just believe. Flush your false doctrine, test the spirits, ditch your heaping collection of teachers who tell you what you want to hear to have the life you think you want to live. There is nothing new under the sun. Life is more simple than we make it. Love is love and truth is truth. And God is GOD. And He LOVES US.. so no more self-righteousness and NO MORE SELF-PITY. Be JOYFUL in the GOD OF YOUR SALVATION TODAY!!!!! Because we don’t deserve it! ;) God is good + life is beautiful. Even when things are bad. God bless and Lord I thank you for all of this and pray that you reach hearts with your word! In Jesus name I pray, Amen! BOOM!

Wolf in Sheep's clothing


1/24/2012
1 Corinthians 12:3- “Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.”

Interpretation: Paul is saying here that no one can confess that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit and that no one who truly has the Holy Spirit inside of them can curse the Lord. In this culture, going to church makes you a Christian. There are people who attend church regularly and claim to be Christians, yet don’t understand the core basic of Christianity. The Bible is the holy inspired word of God and is useful for “teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 4:16) If you don’t believe in the whole Bible, you are calling God a liar. And if you are calling God a liar, you are not a Christian. People go around with a Jesus fish on the back of their car and a cross necklace yet remain so far from the truth that it’s no wonder they get swept away into the world so easily. I grew up in a church where I titled myself a Christian, but my mom was deep in the new age movement, our youth leaders were living in sin, our pastor didn’t preach salvation, and I was getting high before every youth group and no one corrected me or held me accountable for my actions. If anything, my lifestyle was being encouraged. So of course I would tell people that God was good and Jesus was my God, because I could go on doing everything I wanted to do AND go to heaven. But I was self-deceived, and God by his grace revealed that to me. “Christian” means follower of Christ. So when Jesus tells us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him, He is telling us that we need to deny ourselves, and take responsibility and control of our sin, and then we can consider ourselves Christians. Paul is telling the church in Corinth that no one can curse God if the Holy Spirit is in them. So if you go to church on Easter and Christmas and even if you wear a pretty gold cross necklace and even if your grandparents are Christians, please learn from my mistake and don’t start thinking that you are one. Until you accept the basic truth that the whole Bible is the word of God himself, which he says is true, and you ask Jesus into your heart by faith to be your Lord and Savior to forgive you of all your sins to start a personal relationship with Him…you are no more a Christian than the guy sitting in the cold jail cell for murder. By the way, Jesus says that if anyone hates his brother that hatred is equated with murder, so we should rightfully ALL be sitting in that jail cell. Thank God for grace, right?

Application: I want to memorize 2 Timothy 4:16-17. It’s a good one for the arsenal. “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” By memorizing scripture I will not fall into the lies of the enemy.

Gifts


1/23/2012
1 Corinthians 12:1- “Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.”

Interpretation: Whoa, whoa, whoa, what! Spiritual gifts? I admit this took me for an embarrassingly exciting surprise because I am totally ignorant about spiritual gifts. Paul is writing to the church in Corinth, a church with some Jews but mostly ex-pagan Gentiles. Paul names the spiritual gifts all given by the same Holy Spirit in v. 8-10; wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miraculous powers, prophecy, discernment of spirits, speaking in tongues, and interpretation of tongues. Paul is telling the struggling church in Corinth to not remain ignorant, or unknowledgeable or unaware of the gifts of the Spirit. He is telling a church 2,000 years ago to not be ignorant of the gifts of the Spirit, and here we are reading it today as timeless advice. I guess we should be more aware of these gifts and how to properly receive them and use them to give full glory to God when they are manifested. I’m so glad we’re doing this.

Application: I will pray today for God to begin to reveal the gifts of the Spirit he has given me in my life. 

Spread the Love!


1/19/2012
Mark 8:38- “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

Interpretation: Jesus mentions something like this in Matthew 10: 32-33 when he says, “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.” Both of these scriptures have a little you reap what you sew type of ring to them. They also go hand in hand, likely if you are ashamed of Jesus and his words you are not going to acknowledge him before men in this adulterous and sinful generation. Paul says in Romans 1:16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” If we are ashamed of the gospel, and God esteems His word higher than His own name, and Jesus in John 1 is called “the word,” and in John 14:6 refers to himself as the “truth,” then we are being warned here to not be ashamed of the truth. We live in an adulterous and sinful generation; that is the truth! And like Paul, we should not be ashamed of the gospel, but excited because it is the power of salvation for all who believe! So why be ashamed of spreading the truth that is the mind-blowing, life-changing word of God that saves all who believe? If people are so quick to spread their false doctrine, why would we be slow to spread the gospel?

Application: God has laid it on my heart to write a letter to my brother about what I am doing and pray for his salvation and for our relationship to be restored. I love him. 

Woah


1/18/2012

Mark 8:37- “Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Interpretation: Nothing. A man can’t spend his whole life volunteering serving somewhere secular or at a church. We could take all of the money and gold and the treasures of the whole earth and it would add up to dust in the eyes of God. You can’t meditate enough to earn your soul. You could die for someone else, take care of the homeless, be homeless, or be Steve Jobs. You could be Einstein. God isn’t interested in your money, your rise to stardom, or anything else you scrape up to bring to the soul table. It doesn’t matter if you’re a good person or a thief. Oh a thief? Yes a thief, like the one who hung on a cross next to the savior of the world and came to repentance in his final breath and entered the kingdom of God washed clean white as snow. Well that doesn’t seem fair compared to the “good person” who should go to heaven. What is wrong with us? Can’t we admit yet that there is clearly something wrong with everyone and even the best people out there still lack perfection? So what can a man give in exchange for his Hell-bound sinful soul? Here it is listen closely: nothing. The word is redemption. Jesus didn’t die on a cross and come back to life for no reason. We are tiny little humans and God knew there was nothing we could ever do to redeem ourselves, even with all the lamb sacrifices in the world. So God, in character as the forgiving, loving, righteous father He is, gave us His son as our High Priest, our hope, our way to heaven. We can’t give anything in exchange for our soul. We don’t have to; God already did it all. We just have to receive, by faith, the free gift he willingly gave us, and then by the power of the Holy Spirit thank Him by living a life for Him, full of love, truth, mercy, and peace.

Application: I need to pray today to find out how I can live a life more pleasing to the God who saved my soul through the great exchange, at the cross.

It's All Gonna Burn


1/18/2012

Mark 8:36- “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?”

Interpretation: I love this scripture. In this world people are so easily led away from the truth to please their own earthly desires. It seems like once you have a little, however, you always want more. That’s how our flesh works, always hungry and never satisfied. I remember clearly times I would go shopping and be so happy for a week, but by then the new would have gotten old and I’d be itching to go back out and buy more. And if I had more money, I would have bought more. It’s easy to see then how someone could, with enough lies and money, gain the whole world. And on one hand I can see why they would want to. But if Jesus is saying forfeit their soul, and that this life is but a vapor, and that satan is here only to steal, kill, and destroy, then it motivates me even more to lost the life I thought I knew. It encourages me to be “poor in spirit,” meaning so free of every attachment to the material, and so in love with God alone that surely all of my treasures will wait for me in Heaven.

Application: I’m fasting coffee today. Sick of my flesh trying to get a buzz off a coco bean. Whoever doesn’t say we are rotten sinnahs is in radical denial. 

Chuck it


1/17/2012
Mark 8:35

“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and the gospel will save it.”

Interpretation: Our generation has been taught self-preservation from the very beginning. We plaster pictures of ourselves all over facebook, we read Self Magazine, we can’t turn on the TV without being bombarded with advertisements for new shiny special nothings that we simply must consume. And it’s not our fault, necessarily, that’s the way our generation has been raised; We’ve been brainwashed into thinking we have to have our best friends surrounding us, need to stock up on things to comfort us, and if something bad happens we can always keep our pride and good reputations by finding people to agree with us or hey- going and buying more stuff. Have to HAVE to make you feel okay. But here, Jesus is telling us to LOSE if we want to truly have. What does this mean? So I grew up being Meg, had a decent fake reputation mask I put on every morning that kept me feeling secure in my life. But there was always a driving desire in me to have more. No matter how much I had I still wanted more. Sound like you? If it doesn’t … you’re lying. It’s in our blood man! Sin nature tells us that we want what we want and we’ll sin to get it. Take it back to Genesis when Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. She disobeyed God to do her own thing... to “find herself.” So once God made it clear to me that I am a desperate sinner in need of the truth, it was clear that the “Meg mask” needed to be cast into the fire. We need to die so that Christ can live. We need to give so that love can spread. Us trying to save our lives is disobedience. This scripture, this truth, spoken by the one and only true loving God, Jesus Christ, tells us plainly that if we continue to build up our little lives with friends or family or possessions or whatever it is that we thought made us “us,” We are going to lose. But there is hope for the person who understands true love and what Christ did for them personally on a cross, for the person who surrenders all over in faith to this perfect will of our perfect God, the person who sacrifices that man-pleasing mask for the sake of truth and divine love that is Jesus Christ, that person is going to be restored. If we willingly break down this old shack we live in to allow Christ to build his home on a new foundation, there is a promise from God that then we will “find ourselves.” People are always saying that they need to “find themselves,” well that’s never going to work. Lose your SELF, for the sake of God, love, truth, peace, and righteousness.

Application: I will spend time in the word tonight seeking to know my God more. 2 Timothy is on my heart so I’m going to start there.