My Devotional

I created a devotional based on my readings from the message bible. I spent a lot of time and hard work on it, and at the behest of one of my friends, I decided to upload it here.




Table of Contents
• Note from the Author
• Week 1
o Matthew 12-“Make the Tree Good”
o Mark 6- “The Value of your Life”
• Week 2
o John 3- “Exposure to the Elements”
o Acts 2- “Set Your Hope”
• Week 3
o Romans 5- “Have Patience, Have Patience”
o 1 Corinthians 2/2 Corinthians 10- “You are the tool”
• Week 4
o Galatians 3- “Long Division-Not a Math Lesson”
o Ephesians 4- “The 20-Something Baby”
• Week 5
o 1 Timothy 3/2 Timothy 1- “Legacy unto Death”
o Titus 1- “Get a Grip”
• Week 6
o Philemon- “The Same as Me”
o Hebrews 11- “Faith is Foundational”
• Week 7
o James 3- “Lucky Strike Words”
o 1 Peter 4 / 2 Peter 1- “One Star to the Right and Straight on till Morning”
• Week 8
o 1 John  / 2 John  / 3 John- “The Modeling Agency”
o Jude- “Love people, Hate Sin”
• Week 9
o Revelation 3– “Passionate Patience”
o Revelation 4– “The Deep End of Worship”
• Week 10
o Psalms 1- “Being Planted”
o Psalms 11- “God is a Chiropractor”
• Week 11
o Psalms 103– “The Separation of Church and Sin”
o Proverbs 4– “Health Begins at the Heart”
• Week 12
o Proverbs 11– “Oxymoron: Generous=more”
o Proverbs 27– “The Right Company”
• Final thoughts
• About the Author


Note from the Author:
When I was tasked with developing a spiritual smart goal for FY11, my goal was to read the Message Bible. I was quickly challenged to not just read it, but to create a devotional based on my readings. Each devotional shares a Scripture(s) in “The Message” paraphrase by Eugene Peterson, a prayer, and some questions to ponder. This devotional will walk you through key verses that God spoke to me about in every book of the New Testament, as well as Psalms and Proverbs. Each day has scripture to read, a break-down of that scripture with an anecdote, a prayer of growth, and questions to grow deeper. It will challenge you to grow in your love for God and others, and to devote yourself to the ministry of the gospel. As Psalm 1 says:
“Blessed is the one
   who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
   or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the LORD,
   and who meditates on his law day and night.
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
   which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
   whatever they do prospers.
By the end of this devotional it is my prayer that you grow more in love with God. That you grow more deeply in love with God’s word, even as I have grown more deeply in love with God’s word. The bible is described by Paul as a Sword. Easily able to cut and slice through problems we face, even though they may be within us. Not a day goes by when I read the bible and God does not reveal something new and fresh to me that helps me deal with situations I face on a daily basis. There are countless verses that I have read for the hundredth time, and some for the first. I pray that it will impact your life as God’s words, through Eugene Peterson, have impacted mine. – Pastor Sam






“The Bible will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from the Bible.” ~ Dwight L. Moody
 
Make the Tree Good

Matthew 12:33-37
3”If you grow a healthy tree, you’ll pick healthy fruit. If you grow a diseased tree, you’ll pick worm-eaten fruit. The fruit tells you about the tree.  34-37”You have minds like a snake pit! How do you suppose what you say is worth anything when you are so foul-minded? It’s your heart, not the dictionary, that gives meaning to your words. A good person produces good deeds and words season after season. An evil person is a blight on the orchard. Let me tell you something: Every one of these careless words is going to come back to haunt you. There will be a time of Reckoning. Words are powerful; take them seriously. Words can be your salvation. Words can also be your damnation.”
Take it Deeper
Have you ever looked at an apple tree? My parents used to have an Apple tree in their yard. My mom used to have us go out and pick up the apples that fell on the ground, when there were apples to pick up. She would then spend hours cutting the nasty bits out, washing, cleaning, and preparing the apples for apple crisp. The apples were not particularly good looking, in fact, most often they were full of ants. The tree was eventually chopped down and the ants moved on. The funny thing about this story is that this is the analogy that Jesus uses to describe Christian life. A healthy follower of Christ will be a blooming, healthy, happy tree. Psalm 1 describes it like a tree planted by the streams of water. A tree that doesn’t need anything from the environment around it, it has tapped into its source. When you compare that picture to the tree that was in my parent’s yard, there is stark contrast. On one hand, there is a vibrant, fruit bearing tree; conversely, there was the sorry excuse for an apple tree that’s fruit is sparse, not consistent year to year, and when it is there, it’s covered with ants.
 A tree is recognized by its fruit! No matter what we do in life, this principle is one of the most basic and most challenging ones to get. What does your fruit look like? What is the tree of your life producing? Are you the fit, lively tree? Or are you the tree that has 1 foot in the grave? How can you expect to produce good fruit if your tree is dying? 
Jesus goes on to say “It’s your heart, not the dictionary, which gives meaning to your words” (v. 34). We have to understand that our hearts play a huge role in the tree. Just like the tree has roots, the root of our body is our heart. Not the muscle, but the attitudes, the emotions, the deepest most primal thoughts we have. We have to make the root of the tree good in order to make the tree come alive and bear fruit. Just like the roots of a tree are the anchor, the foundation, of that tree, so your mind, will, and emotions (heart), are an anchor for your life.
 Take a deep look at your roots today, ask God to show you areas that your roots are falling apart and are not as strong as they should be. Ask the Holy Spirit to fall on you like a rain to cleanse your life and begin to cause your fruit to grow strong and healthy.

Prayer
Father, as I examine my roots, I pray that you would show me areas in my life where I am not pleasing you. I pray that I would not approach these with trepidation or anger, but would approach them with confidence knowing that you will show me what I need to do to fix my roots. I believe that as soon as my roots are fixed, you will cause my life to change and the fruits of the spirit and fruits of my life to grow in me. I pray, Holy Spirit, that your presence would wash me, refresh my spirit today in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray.

Questions to grow deeper still
• What are some areas in your life that God revealed to you?
• What are the Ants that eat away at your fruit?



The Value of Your Life
Mark 6:1-6
1-2 He left there and returned to his hometown. His disciples came along. On the Sabbath, he gave a lecture in the meeting place. He made a real hit, impressing everyone. “We had no idea he was this good!” they said. “How did he get so wise all of a sudden, get such ability?”
 3But in the next breath they were cutting him down: “He’s just a carpenter—Mary’s boy. We’ve known him since he was a kid. We know his brothers, James, Justus, Jude, and Simon, and his sisters. Who does he think he is?” They tripped over what little they knew about him and fell, sprawling. And they never got any further.
 4-6Jesus told them, “A prophet has little honor in his hometown, among his relatives, on the streets he played in as a child.” Jesus wasn’t able to do much of anything there—he laid hands on a few sick people and healed them, that’s all. He couldn’t get over their stubbornness. He left and made a circuit of the other villages, teaching.

Luke 19:20-26
20-21”The next servant said, ‘Master, here’s your money safe and sound. I kept it hidden in the cellar. To tell you the truth, I was a little afraid. I know you have high standards and hate sloppiness, and don’t suffer fools gladly.’
 22-23”He said, ‘You’re right that I don’t suffer fools gladly—and you’ve acted the fool! Why didn’t you at least invest the money in securities so I would have gotten a little interest on it?’
 24”Then he said to those standing there, ‘Take the money from him and give it to the servant who doubled my stake.’
 25”They said, ‘But Master, he already has double . . .’
 26”He said, ‘That’s what I mean: Risk your life and get more than you ever dreamed of. Play it safe and end up holding the bag.


Take it Deeper
 It’s no coincidence that the verses we learned today continue the theme of the roots and the fruit. However, we are not going to talk about the roots today, we are going to talk about the branches! Today we continue by talking about value. Notice in the Scripture in Mark, Jesus is in his hometown! He starts to do some cool stuff! But we see a switch in there where the people start saying “He’s just a carpenter.” (v. 2). There are times when we are looking at things in our lives where we can very easily under-value what and who God made us to do/be.
 One thing to realize is that people will get tripped up over you. In fact, they will attack the core of who you are, challenging every possible belief you have because they do not understand you. If you are holding out for universal acceptance, you will be waiting a long time! Instead of looking at it from a perspective of acceptance, look at it from a perspective of who God says you are. He says you are a wonderful creation, He says you are HIS adopted children. You are the BRIDE of Christ, the head not the tail. All this is great, but unless we believe it, we are just adding to the pressure that is already there for acceptance. If we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, and we declare it with our lips, we are accepted. That’s it, pure and simple. That’s all that should matter, but you know as well as I do that it is very easy to go chasing after acceptance from men. In Verse 3 of Mark, it says that “They tripped over what little they knew about him and fell sprawling.”
It is important to look at your value through the eyes of the one who created you. If you go based on what “they” say, that’s like going to a baker to ask advice on what the best car is. No! You go to the expert of that area for advice, and it just so happens that the expert on you is GOD! There’s another piece to this too, not just being accepted. God asks us to step out of our comfort zones. In all of the gospels, Jesus gives us a mission to reach out to the hurting and the broken. It is an iconic call that will demand more out of us than we fully realize at the time we accept Jesus. However, the scripture in Luke explains a lot!
We know from the story that a wealthy man, who had servants, was going out of town. So he gave some “talents” (money) to 3 servants and told them to do what they could with it. The first and second men took the money and doubled it. They took a risk that they might loose the money. The third man, however, took the money and hid it. When the wealthy man comes back, the first two servants come to him and say, “Here ya go! We took a risk, but it paid off.” The third man, as we see in v. 20, says “Master, here’s your money safe and sound. I kept it hidden in the cellar. To tell you the truth, I was a little afraid. I know you have high standards and hate sloppiness, and don’t suffer fools gladly.” The wealthy man is pretty ticked, as I am sure most of us would be. He then took the money away from the servant and gave it to the first man. Here’s where I am getting to, Jesus was driving this point home for us. “He said, ‘That’s what I mean: Risk your life and get more than you ever dreamed of. Play it safe and end up holding the bag.’”
When it comes down to it, what we have to understand is that we need to do what God asks regardless. It seems like a risk to us, but if we make that risk, GOD will provide. As my mother-in-law says, “Where God guides, God provides.”

Prayer
Father, I pray that you would help me to see myself the way YOU see me. I pray that you would take the blinders off my eyes and would begin to value myself the way you value me. If I overvalue myself, I pray that you would forgive me. Make yourself bigger in my heart, eyes, and mind. I also pray that your Holy Spirit would give me courage to take what seems like a risk to me to fulfill the plan and purpose you have for me! I pray this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Questions to grow deeper still
• What is one thing God has asked you to do?
• Do you overvalue or undervalue yourself? Why?
• Has someone placed a negative value on you that you have held onto? If so, ask God to help you let it go! You are more than negative words make you out to be, you are worth a lot to God.

Exposure to the Elements
John 3:16-20
16-18”This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.
 19-21”This is the crisis we’re in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won’t come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is.”

Take it Deeper
Have you ever tried to help someone and seemed to make it worse? Only to have them come back with “Look, you made it worse”? Sometimes, that’s how we react to God. He comes in to save the day, and things look worse not better. When it comes down to it, when have God’s plans ever made much sense to us? God is infinite, unimaginably huge, and incredibly complex. He’s so big that we can’t understand why He chooses to do things the way He does. In fact, God set up a law back when he created the world. You may have heard of it, it’s called “The law of sowing and reaping.” For everything we sow, there are consequences (reaping) both good and bad. Usually, when we sow to please ourselves, we reap death, judgment, and pain (Galatians 6:8) but always, there are consequences.
What does that mean in this context? Well, most often, cry out to God, our loving father, when things are bad, but when He steps in and doesn’t do exactly what we asked or expected, we point our finger at Him. God is the one who should be pointing fingers. He made us, and we in our sin, turned our backs on him. In fact, V.16 says “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.” Notice it doesn’t say “…a whole lasting life free from consequences.”
Here comes the worst of it. We are in a crisis. Everyone on earth is dealing with it, though few recognize it. The crisis is this: sin still exists. We still do what we want, still blame God for our hurts, but don’t praise Him for our successes. God gave Jesus to us to shine a light on the corrupt plan of sin: world domination. The problem is, most of us still prefer the vittles that sin offers, over the choice food that God provides. And the worst of it, yes it gets worse, is that we chose to do it because we feared that God would expose us painfully. But the reality is, when we expose our sins to God, who already knew them, its actually liberating. If there are areas in your life that are tainted by darkness, expose them to the light. It may hurt, especially if you have to “Out” yourself to someone you love because you are hiding something from them, but by doing that, God then removes the condemnation and the fear and sets us free!


Prayer
 Jesus, I love you. I know that you died to bring light to me. I accept you and your light and pray that you would shine it on my life. Examine me in every area, show me the dirty, dank, nasty parts of my life that you want to remove and clean. I promise to run to the light with my problems instead of running away. Please also give me the courage to go through the consequences of my actions. If you can abate or remove them altogether, I pray that you would do so, if not, I realize that it is just a small matter compared to the eternity that awaits me in judgment. Thank you for your forgiveness, I pray that you would help me to walk in the light in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Questions to grow deeper still
• What are 3 areas of your life that need to be exposed to light?
• Can you think of why you would run away from the light?
• Why don’t you write down areas in your life that you want God to shine his Light onto?

Set Your Hope
Acts 2:22-28
Fellow Israelites, listen carefully to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man thoroughly accredited by God to you—the miracles and wonders and signs that God did through him are common knowledge—this Jesus, following the deliberate and well-thought-out plan of God, was betrayed by men who took the law into their own hands, and was handed over to you. And you pinned him to a cross and killed him. But God untied the death ropes and raised him up. Death was no match for him. David said it all:

   I saw God before me for all time.
      Nothing can shake me; he’s right by my side.
   I’m glad from the inside out, ecstatic;
      I’ve pitched my tent in the land of hope.
   I know you’ll never dump me in Hades;
      I’ll never even smell the stench of death.
   You’ve got my feet on the life-path,
      with your face shining sun-joy all around.

Take it deeper
 Have you ever been lost? My wife and I on Father’s day this year went to Seattle’s Space Needle for a wonderful brunch. Before I continue with the story, one important aspect is that neither of us drive in big cities very often. We were running a bit behind, as we left our place at 9:15 am, and had to arrive at the Space Needle promptly at 10:00 am for our reservations. On our way, the one exit we needed to take, Mercer Street, was closed down for construction. So we took the suggested detour and according to the map, should have been able to get where we were trying to go. However, when we got off the exit, everything started out badly. We got to the end of a street and had to choose left or right. Our GPS said straight, so I went left, towards the Space Needle. We looked for the next available street to turn right and continue parallel to our original course.
However, our course was blocked, so I kept traveling towards my destination. Then I tried to finally get to a street where we could get through, and it was also blocked. We weren’t allowed to turn right or left. We had to go, pull a u-turn, and head the correct way. At one point, my wife, trying to discern the proper direction from my GPS, says, “I just don’t know what we should do! AHHHH!” The frustration was palpable. We were both hungry, tired of being in the car, trying to have a good time, but can’t because we aren’t at the end destination. Add to that the dramatic tension of possibly losing our reservations to a very nice brunch and that’s enough to make anyone cry.
That’s how life is sometimes. God has a plan, and we set our GPS to go the way God wants us to go, but unforeseen detours cause us to have to go a different way. There we go, caught in the big city of life without any kind of even general idea where we are supposed to go. We get caught up in the moment, with buildings all around us and many times go running to God “I just don’t know what I should do God! AHHH!” Times like those are when we need to concentrate on the goal, not the journey. While we should have a good journey too, its not so important that we get hung up on our way. God wants to be the Garmin we use, not our way. It’s God’s way! Some more background on the verse above: The Pharisees killed Jesus, the disciples were in Jerusalem, and had been since he was tried, convicted and killed. Imagine if you had a perfect plan all laid out. A social revolt that would cause the Romans to release their death grip on your family, friends, and nation; imagine next, a leader comes preaching a new message. YES! We have someone to lead us against the injustice! What the disciples failed to realize was that Jesus didn’t come to just set them free from the injustice they faced; he came to set them free from ALL injustice. He didn’t come to ignite a political movement; he came to ignite a spiritual one. In fact, they were so confused that when their teacher and best friend was killed, they scattered, not knowing what else to do. Then, the strangest thing happens, Jesus comes back to life! That changed everything. Jesus tells them to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit arrives and empowers them. They wait, and the Holy Spirit indeed comes. Then Peter jumps up and explains what we just read. Peter, who mere days before was denying Jesus and cussing about it, comes with more authority than Donald Trump!
 Just like my wife and I in the car, the directions don’t always pan out, but what we have to do is SET OUR HOPE ON JESUS! SET OUR HOPE ON THE ONE WHO KNOWS WHAT HE IS DOING! We may not, but he most certainly does. When all is said and done, we need to make our hope resolute, strong, and impossible to crack. By doing that, we will have a new perspective on the things we face and God will enable us to conquer victoriously!

Prayer
 Lord I pray that you would help me to set my hope in you alone. Help me to not fret when I don’t see things pan out the way I think they should. I pray that your Holy Spirit would give me discernment to know that you have everything under control. I pray also that you would give me courage to be able to trust you with my whole life. I pray this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Questions to grow deeper still
• Have you panicked about your life lately?
• How do you respond when your plans don’t work the way you want them to?
• Are there areas in your life that you can trust God with more of?


Have Patience, Have Patience

Romans 5:3-5
3-5There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!

Take it deeper
 When I was a kid, I used to listen to a Christian themed tape called the Music Machine. It was great! I would hear them say, “werr, werr, chicka, chika, bump bump pfsssss.” In that there was the story of a loveable snail whose father told him to have patience. He sung a song “Have patience, Have patience, don’t be in such a hurry. If you don’t have patience, you’ll only start to worry. Remember! Remember! That God is patient too and think of all the others who have had to wait on you!” Recently, my wife and I heard that song on her iPod. At the time, it was fun to remember a childhood song that I used to sing so much. Along with the “Rubber Duck” song by Burt and Ernie, and “You are my Sunshine” I used to have all those songs in my head. But somehow, along the way, I got less and less patient. To the end result of me speeding and being very annoyed with people who drive slowly. I am sure I am the only person who deals with that so I will just encourage you with this devotion.
 Did you know that one of the fruits of the spirit is patience? Patience is a powerful tool against sin. If Abraham and Sarah had just been patient, they would not have tried to fulfill the plan of God on their own. The results of their impatience is a 2000 year old blood feud between the descendants of Ishmael (Palestine) and the descendents of Isaac (Israel). The results of our impatience can be as far reaching as that. But one thing we must understand is how to be patient with people, despite being surrounded by opposition. We need to look around, see our foe and not just develop some patience to wait. Regular patience is being able to stand the test of time, but the writer of Romans suggests that we have “passionate patience” (v.3). The problem is, most of us don’t have enough patience to deal with the trouble we do have, which the writer says cause us to develop passionate patience. Today, no matter what the problem you face is, no matter what obstacle comes your way, God wants you to develop PASSIONATE patience. A patience that looks at the trials and says “come on, do your worst, I am fixed on God. You aren’t gonna hurt me, you aren’t gonna affect me, I am strong.” The writer tells us after that the patience literally turns into virtue and it is like steel, not easily broken. Then, after all that, God blesses us so much that we don’t have enough room for it. But we have to stand up and say to our opposition, “No matter what you do, I am not going to turn away.” When we do that, God smiles from His throne and says, “That’s my son/daughter in whom I am well pleased.”

Prayer
 Jesus, we thank you for dying on the cross so we could overcome. We acknowledge that without you, we could not do anything. It is only because of you that we have what we have and are able to do what we do. Thank you for your sacrifice. Father, we thank you for giving us courage. We pray that you would be a seal on our hearts; that you would help us to NOT RELENT. That passionate patience would develop in us and we would be able to withstand anything and everything that comes against us in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Questions to grow deeper still
• Have you ever been impatient?
• Knowing what you know now, how will you change your attitude towards impatience?
• Do you need more patience today? Why not ask Jesus to infuse you with it!

You are the Tool
1 Corinthians 2:3-5
 3-5I was unsure of how to go about this, and felt totally inadequate—I was scared to death, if you want the truth of it—and so nothing I said could have impressed you or anyone else. But the Message came through anyway. God’s Spirit and God’s power did it, which made it clear that your life of faith is a response to God’s power, not to some fancy mental or emotional footwork by me or anyone else.

2 Corinthians 10:3-6
3-6The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.

Take it deeper
 Have you ever bought furniture from IKEA? Typically, you go to IKEA and walk through their display of faux living rooms and bed rooms. When you see a piece you like, you grab the tag, or try to remember the Swedish name and go to the warehouse. Then you take it, after making a brief stop to get Glogg and some tasty Swedish meatballs. After your “Old Country” meal, you take your package home and proceed to build it like you would Lego’s.
The cool part about IKEA is that they come with all the tools you will need to put your furniture together! You and I are the same way! When God goes through the whole wide world, he looks for a piece of furniture that will fill the purpose he needs it for. He looks through all the different people and says, “There, that Troende, it will be perfect in my house.” He goes out to the warehouse and begins finding the boxes needed, maybe he even stops for Glogg and Swedish meatballs…
So he goes and sets out to build the singularly grand piece of plan that will bring glory to Himself. Maybe if He builds this, His people will return to Him! He looks at all the different pieces and reaches into the box and grabs you and me. He says, “I choose to use you, you are perfect for this job!” In fact, you are so perfect for the job God has for you, NO ONE ELSE will ever do what you can. Sure, God can use other people, but He MADE you for this job, and no one else would get it quite right. The great thing about the job God has made for you is he has given you tools to accomplish it successfully! 2 Corinthians tells us of these tools: “The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.” So be encouraged, God has huge plans for you, all we need to do to see them is obey, and bond ourselves to God’s good plans!

Prayer
 Father, I thank you for your plans! I know they are good. Your word tells me that your plans are to prosper and not to harm, to give us life abundantly. I thank you that you made me for the job you have for me, and I pray that you give me the discernment to take obedient steps towards your ways and your plan.

Questions to grow deeper still
• What plans has God told you about? Why don’t you take a moment to write them down
• What is one step you can take today towards those plans?

Long Division- Not a Math Lesson

Galatians 3:28-29
 28-29In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ. Also, since you are Christ’s family, then you are Abraham’s famous “descendant,” heirs according to the covenant promises.

Take it deeper
A few months ago, I had a good friend of mine at World Vision ask me a question. I answered his question, and then he said, “You know…” I could tell he was about to delve into something very thought provoking and deeply spiritual. He is a deep thinker and a question asker. So he says to me, “You know Sam, you are a very unique person. You look at people and just see them.” After saying thank you I explain to him, “God showed me a secret on how to love people no matter what they do. The secret is to separate the person and their actions.” What I mean is you have to be able to look at a person, regardless of what they have done, and love them. In fact, a verse in Jude (which we will cover a bit), says that we are to “Be tender with sinners, but not soft on sin.” How do we do that? We have to embrace what Paul says in Galatians (Through Eugene Peterson of course!): …no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and femal. Among us you are all equal!” (V. 28). God made us all, we all sin (Romans 3:23), and when we become Christians, we are adopted into God’s family and reunited with our creator.
Our relationship with Christ is what ties us. It drives us to a common purpose: to please and honor our father. It should be something that unites us beyond our petty differences. But too often we see division and strife. I love the way Jesus puts it in one of the gospels. “How can Satan drive out Satan? Matthew 12:25, 26 says, “ 25 Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. 26 If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand?” It should be no surprise that Jesus wasn’t just talking about driving out demons. Every house that has division is going to fall apart. Have you ever heard of someone getting a divorce for “irreconcilable differences?” 99.999% of the time, there is division in that home. Whether brought on by the husband or wife, it doesn’t matter. Someone in that situation refused to change and because of that there was a clash between what was there and the new identity that should have been created when they said, “I do.”
Pastor Brian Houston, from Hillsong Sydney, tells a story that perfectly sums this up. He said he was visiting a ministry and had gotten up early to shower. He got done showering and realized he had not only forgotten to grab his clean clothes, but also a towel. He says that he debated whether to just stay there and shout for help, or to run to his room at the end of the hall. He decided to run. About half way down the hall, one of the doors started to open. He says that at that moment, part of him wanted to go back, and the rest of him wanted to just get to the room. The result was that he tripped and fell on his back. Division, especially in the house of God will destroy everything that Christ died to build. You have to realize they need Jesus as much as you and I do. You have to realize that no matter what color they are, no matter what country they are from, or what denomination they hold to, we are all God’s children, washed in the blood of Jesus. It is time to stop clinging to petty titles and small minded judgments about different believers and begin to go for God together as the body of Christ.As my nephew says, “Same Same.”   Today, I ask you to look at those you have been avoiding and choose love.

Prayer
 Father, today I pray that you would give me eyes to see people as you see them. For those who are fellow Christ followers: they are washed in the blood of my Master Jesus, forgiven and free. For those who do not follow Christ: they need Jesus’ blood to cleanse them. Regardless of race, creed, country or gender, I choose to love them today. I choose to pray for them today. Where possible, I choose to minister your love to them today. I pray that you would pour out your Spirit in my life so that I can minister in your power, not my own in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Questions to go deeper still
• What is holding you back from recognizing someone as your brother or sister in Christ?
• Why do you feel the need to hold on to their sins when God has forgiven them?
• What is keeping you from choosing to love them today?

The 20-Something Baby
Ephesians 4:14-16
14-16No prolonged infancies among us, please. We’ll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.

Take it deeper
When I was growing up, I was homeschooled. I focused on school, when I went to High School and never really had any aspirations to move. Some people hit 18 and their parents kick them out. Some want to leave earlier than 18, as was the case with one of my sisters. Regardless, many people make the tough decision to move out of the comfort of their parent or guardian’s house and take on the responsibility of their own place. That’s a big decision. The decision to grow up is never easy because it ALWAYS comes with more work. The picture we get here is either grow up, or become a 20-something baby.
While I was responsible, and I even paid rent, being at my parents until I was 27 was not really a great way to grow up. You can only grow up so much. If you were, as a baby, to just keep eating formula and never start on solid foods, your body would grow, but you would never experience all that life has to offer because you would probably be weak, sickly, and frail because your body can’t get enough nutrients from the formula as you get older. Sure, taking it easy, being comfortable, is definitely an incentive to NOT growing up, but is a good one? No. Sooner or later, we all have to grow up. That has to happen spiritually too. Paul writes to the Ephesians and says that Infancy is ok, but only when we are infants! It is ok to be immature when you are immature, but we should always be striving to grow more.
There’s a disturbing trend I am noticing among 20-somethings in the church today. They go to church, go to their small group, but don’t really try to grow spiritually. Sure, they are going to church, but if you were to ask them to show the fruit of their lives, they can’t point to anything, they have no leg to stand on. WHY? We care more about entertainment, fun, fashion, insert your favorite hobby here. We care more about pleasing ourselves than we really care about pleasing God.
 That’s not new, selfishness has been around for a long time, and the disturbing part of it is because it is becoming acceptable to many church pastors to have people who don’t ever grow in their faith. They don’t read their bible, they don’t lead in the church, they don’t ever get past their spiritual infancy. Then the excitement fades, they struggle with sins that if they were more spiritually mature would not be an issue. Instead, of overcoming, they stay in the prison of self and sin that they have lived in their whole life and cop an attitude with anyone who tells us differently. 70-80% of High School graduates never continue going to church when they graduate and go to college. Why is this number so staggering? We have too many babies in the church. It is time to grow up! Yes it is not very fun to have to go to work every day and read the bible, but after doing it for awhile, it becomes something that you can enjoy if you have the right attitude!

Prayer
Father, I pray that you would show me what areas in my life I need to grow up. Please show me where I am still a baby spiritually and where I am doing well in. I pray that your hand would guide me to make right choices and teach me how to be a spiritual adult. I thank you that you have given me everything that I need for Life and Godliness, and I pray that you would help me to grow up right now in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Questions to grow deeper still
• What are two areas in your life that you feel are immature spiritually?
• How do you think you can grow them?
• Why don’t you take some time to write down the areas, pray over them, and see if there are any practical things you can do to grow them.

God of the Open Door
Philippians 1:12-14
12-14I want to report to you, friends, that my imprisonment here has had the opposite of its intended effect. Instead of being squelched, the Message has actually prospered. All the soldiers here, and everyone else, too, found out that I’m in jail because of this Messiah. That piqued their curiosity, and now they’ve learned all about him. Not only that, but most of the followers of Jesus here have become far more sure of themselves in the faith than ever, speaking out fearlessly about God, about the Messiah.

Colossians 4:2-4
2-4Pray diligently. Stay alert, with your eyes wide open in gratitude. Don’t forget to pray for us, that God will open doors for telling the mystery of Christ, even while I’m locked up in this jail. Pray that every time I open my mouth I’ll be able to make Christ plain as day to them.

Taking it deeper
Have you ever heard the expression “God will open a door?” Christian colloquialisms are some of the strangest ones. Mostly because they are based on a specific person’s concept or phrase that was used in a sermon. Another is “God will build a hedge of protection around you.” Someone said that to me once and I was thinking “What happens if Satan uses hedge trimmers?”
While I am poking fun at my own people, the one about opening doors is actually a pretty good example of how God works. God works behind the scenes, beyond time and space, to orchestrate things in our lives that need to happen. When they come up, we have a choice, obey God and walk through the open door, or disobey God and stay where we are. It reminds me of a game show I saw once where the contestants had to literally run through a maze of doors and avoid the guards and the doors that lead to a watery moat All the doors are unlocked, but behind each door, the contestants went through there was a possibility of facing a guard or a watery drop! Following God is just like that. He has all the doors unlocked and ready, he just says, “Please go this way.” We can go through and know that God will guide us by safe paths, or help us make work decisions that are wise. Or we can choose to go through one of the other doors. While God wants us to go through the correct doors, he’s not going to force us! He’s such a Righteous God that He WILL NOT violate our freedom to choose.
We see Paul in Philippians tell us that sometimes, obeying God ends in physical persecution. But Paul says the persecution has a counter-intuitive reaction on the Gospel. You’d think that putting arguably the most influential Christian of all time, in prison would stifle the growth that had started under his leadership. But instead, he says it grew! It caused non-believers to believe and believers to go out even more! God opened a door straight to prison for Paul, but in so doing; he opened the door to his kingdom to many other people. God can take anything and use it, but He won’t violate His laws, his word, or his Love for you. Jesus opened the way for it all by dying on the Cross for our sins.
It sounds so blasé to many, but when you stop and think about the gravity of what Jesus did, it makes a difference. He came to earth, being God, lived a PERFECT life. He came and did that to become the ultimate sacrificial lamb for mankind. By doing that, the separation between God and man, our sin, was ruptured and broken. God defeated death, hell, and the grave when Jesus rose again and made them a mockery just to allow you and I to enter back into relationship with him. God is still in the habit of opening doors. He opens doors of opportunity for finance, relationships, growth, miracles, and the like. He wants to open doors for you and me and show us where to go, but we have to be open and willing to walk through them. The best part is, the more and more we walk through them, the more and more quickly God opens the doors.

Prayer
Jesus, I thank you for your love, that you opened a door for me. I pray that no matter what doors I have to walk through in my life, you would guide me. Give me peace when I am making the right decisions, and give me a check in my spirit when the door is closed so that I don’t walk through a door that you want shut. I pray that you would show me the next door I need to walk through in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Questions to grow deeper still
• What are 3 doors you know that God opened?
• What is 1 door that you walked through that you wish you hadn’t?
• What is 1 door that seemed negative that God used to impact others?

The Balancing Act of Faith
1 Thessalonians 4:6-12
 6-7Don’t run roughshod over the concerns of your brothers and sisters. Their concerns are God’s concerns, and he will take care of them. We’ve warned you about this before. God hasn’t invited us into a disorderly, unkempt life but into something holy and beautiful—as beautiful on the inside as the outside.
 8If you disregard this advice, you’re not offending your neighbors; you’re rejecting God, who is making you a gift of his Holy Spirit.
 9-10Regarding life together and getting along with each other, you don’t need me to tell you what to do. You’re God-taught in these matters. Just love one another! You’re already good at it; your friends all over the province of Macedonia are the evidence. Keep it up; get better and better at it.
 11-12Stay calm; mind your own business; do your own job. You’ve heard all this from us before, but a reminder never hurts. We want you living in a way that will command the respect of outsiders, not lying around sponging off your friends.

2 Thessalonians 3:4-9
 4-5Because of the Master, we have great confidence in you. We know you’re doing everything we told you and will continue doing it. May the Master take you by the hand and lead you along the path of God’s love and Christ’s endurance.
 6-9Our orders—backed up by the Master, Jesus—are to refuse to have anything to do with those among you who are lazy and refuse to work the way we taught you. Don’t permit them to freeload on the rest. We showed you how to pull your weight when we were with you, so get on with it. We didn’t sit around on our hands expecting others to take care of us. In fact, we worked our fingers to the bone, up half the night moonlighting so you wouldn’t be burdened with taking care of us. And it wasn’t because we didn’t have a right to your support; we did. We simply wanted to provide an example of diligence, hoping it would prove contagious.


Take it deeper
Have you ever seen a tight rope walker? Whenever I think about it, one iconic image stands out in my mind. The image is of a man with a 30 ft. pole balancing on a thick cable between the World Trade Center buildings. To see this image, go to this website. If you think about it, this pair of scriptures gives us good outer boundaries. On one side, we see Paul telling us don’t run over people, love people. Then on the other, he tells us not to be lazy and not to allow lazy people among us, but to encourage them to get going and not “sponge off” people. Have you ever met a person who does that? Sucks up the resources from a hard working person? One thing God brought to me: There are spiritual sponges too. There are people who will want to absorb everything they can off of you for no other reason than to make themselves feel good. They won’t listen to what God is doing in your life, they won’t use it to grow in their own lives, they will only use it to suck you dry and control you. We have to be aware of those types of people and avoid them or put them in their place.
The other thing Paul is saying, in a nutshell, is we need to learn how to balance our faith. We need to learn how to work hard and be diligent without making it religious wrote. Working with God should be the goal, not working for God. Yes, it is difficult to do, because we all want to make God happy, but we need to understand that we already make God happy by just being His Children. He doesn’t want your work, He wants you! He doesn’t care about how much you’ve done for Him, He cares about how much time you’ve spent WITH Him. What we have to do is balance the time we spend with Him and the commitments we make so that we get a more and more time with God every day!

Prayer
Father, I pray that you would teach me how to spend less busy time and more time with you. Help me to not work for you, but with you. I pray that you would help me to detect sponges that seek to suck me dry of all the blessings and gifts you placed inside of me. I thank you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Questions to grow deeper still
• What is the biggest hindrance to living balanced?
• Do you know any sponges?
• Why don’t you take a moment to pray for them?

The Legacy unto Death

1 Timothy 3:1-7
 1-7If anyone wants to provide leadership in the church, good! But there are preconditions: A leader must be well-thought-of, committed to his wife, cool and collected, accessible, and hospitable. He must know what he’s talking about, not be overfond of wine, not pushy but gentle, not thin-skinned, not money-hungry. He must handle his own affairs well, attentive to his own children and having their respect. For if someone is unable to handle his own affairs, how can he take care of God’s church? He must not be a new believer, lest the position go to his head and the Devil trip him up. Outsiders must think well of him, or else the Devil will figure out a way to lure him into his trap.

2 Timothy 1:3-4
3-4Every time I say your name in prayer—which is practically all the time—I thank God for you, the God I worship with my whole life in the tradition of my ancestors. I miss you a lot, especially when I remember that last tearful good-bye, and I look forward to a joy-packed reunion.
 5-7That precious memory triggers another: your honest faith—and what a rich faith it is, handed down from your grandmother Lois to your mother Eunice, and now to you! And the special gift of ministry you received when I laid hands on you and prayed—keep that ablaze! God doesn’t want us to be shy with his gifts, but bold and loving and sensible.
 8-10So don’t be embarrassed to speak up for our Master or for me, his prisoner. Take your share of suffering for the Message along with the rest of us. We can only keep on going, after all, by the power of God, who first saved us and then called us to this holy work. We had nothing to do with it. It was all his idea, a gift prepared for us in Jesus long before we knew anything about it. But we know it now. Since the appearance of our Savior, nothing could be plainer: death defeated, life vindicated in a steady blaze of light, all through the work of Jesus.


Take it deeper
If you are a leader in any stretch of the imagination, you’d do well to read through and study 1st and 2nd Timothy. In them, Paul lays out to young Timothy exactly what God told him to regarding leadership. In the first scripture, Paul gives minimum qualifications of any leader in the church. He stresses some qualities, not being fond of wine, being gentle in spirit, but not walked all over, not greedy, a respectable family person. It makes me wonder, sometimes, why God allows people to have success when they do not meet these qualifications, yet still lead. If you have similar questions, we must remember that God’s ways are not ours. We must also remember that God uses even sinners to accomplish His work. Why would God give such qualifications? Part of it is because He says that those who tend his people have a double responsibility when it comes to souls. Not just their own, but also the souls of those they lead. That doesn’t negate responsibility, but it means that God wants leaders to be people that will drive others to HIM, not to their own agenda. Then we look at 2 Timothy and see that Timothy, albeit young, had a spiritual legacy. What is your legacy? When Yah takes you home, what will people say you did? Then Paul says to be bold with the gifts that God has given you. He makes no clearer distinction than this. God wants us to use what He has given us to make a difference in the lives of people. In some ways, that makes us all leaders doesn’t it?
Where would we be if we didn’t have the legacy of believers going before us? It begs a closer look. Paul says that the faith Timothy has is exactly the same faith that his grandmother and mother possessed. That being the case, Timothy would have seen it modeled by his grandmother and mother. The bible says in one place, “One generation shall praise your works to another.” (Ps. 145:4). Nowhere is that more clearly illustrated than here. Timothy saw how his grandmother and mother lived and instead of pushing him away, he got closer to the faith. He became the pastor of a very large church, the first mega-church at Ephesus. Later, because of that same faith, pagans take him and beat him, drag him through the streets before killing him. I know that’s not exactly how any of us want to go out in life. I am sure Timothy didn’t want to either, but we need to get to a place were we live out our faith louder than we preach it. A place where our word are a result of and an indicator for all those around us that God is very real and he delights in his children; live it louder than you preach it.
No matter where it takes you, do like St. Francis of Asisi said, “Preach the gospel at all times, when necessary, use words.”

Prayer
 Lord I pray that you would teach me how to live my faith out in such a way that people notice. Jesus, I thank you that you gave me such a great example to learn from. One that always obeyed, even unto death; the brutal death on the cross. I pray that you would give me that kind of courage, Lord, so I can walk where you want me to walk. I thank you for it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Questions to grow deeper still
• What is your spiritual legacy?
• Who are your Spiritual “Mother” and “Grandmother”
• What is hindering you from living out your faith?

Get a Grip
Titus 1:5-9
 5-9I left you in charge in Crete so you could complete what I left half-done. Appoint leaders in every town according to my instructions. As you select them, ask, “Is this man well-thought-of? Is he committed to his wife? Are his children believers? Do they respect him and stay out of trouble?” It’s important that a church leader, responsible for the affairs in God’s house, be looked up to—not pushy, not short-tempered, not a drunk, not a bully, not money-hungry. He must welcome people, be helpful, wise, fair, reverent, have a good grip on himself, and have a good grip on the Message, knowing how to use the truth to either spur people on in knowledge or stop them in their tracks if they oppose it.


Take it Deeper
Here is another amazing letter from Paul to a son in the faith: Titus. In this letter, we see similar qualifications as we do in 1 Timothy 3. However, the biggest difference is Paul adds that leaders must “…have a good grip on himself, and have a good grip on the Message, knowing how to use the truth to either spur people on in knowledge or stop them in their tracks if they oppose it.” Why? Why would Paul add this? Because all too often, the people of God do not have a good enough grip on what they preach, what they live, what they say. Then when something comes to challenge their beliefs, it becomes all that much harder to hang on. In fact, it could be compared to trying to cross monkey-bars in the rain with one hand tied behind your back and the other covered in slime!
I know it’s a weird image to contemplate, but imagine being a child hanging by one slimy hand on a monkey-bar in the rain. Its not impossible, but it is very hard and you definitely can’t last for very long. Also, Paul indicates that the leader must have a good grip on himself/herself. The sad thing is that too many of us have a grip on the message, but don’t have a grip on ourselves. This is where the enemy is really good. He’ll sneak in, if we don’t watch it, and start bringing insecurity and self-doubt into our lives. If he can get us to question our calling, that’s the ultimate block to the mission God has called us to. I have been there. I allowed thoughts of “I’m not good enough, I can’t really do what God has asked.” Such lies, yes they are lies, are so hard to tell because sometimes we get the insane idea that God is telling us “You made a mistake.” But in reality, God is saying, “YOU CAN DO IT! I AM RIGHT HERE WITH YOU!”
The worst part of this tactic the enemy is using is that it is targeting young believers and its not new! Paul tells Titus to get a grip on the message and himself. If you are struggling today with self-identity, or acceptance, please know that God loves you for who you are! Regardless of what you have done, God will always love you. You could take 1 million steps away, and Jesus is always 1 step away.

Prayer
Jesus, I thank you for dying for me. I thank you that you saw the enemy’s scheme and stood in the gap for me. I pray that you would reveal a new revelation of just how much you love me. I thank you that you are restoring me to how you see me. I pray that you would shut down the enemy’s scheme to ruin my identity in you. I pray all this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Questions to take it deeper still
• Have you ever been insecure?
• If so, what was the reason?
• Do you have a good grip on yourself?

The Same as Me
Philemon 17-20
17-20So if you still consider me a comrade-in-arms, welcome him back as you would me. If he damaged anything or owes you anything, chalk it up to my account. This is my personal signature—Paul—and I stand behind it. (I don’t need to remind you, do I, that you owe your very life to me?) Do me this big favor, friend. You’ll be doing it for Christ, but it will also do my heart good.

Take it deeper
When I was 10, my mom used to have me go and tell my brother to do something. There was usually 1 of 2 outcomes. One was him ignoring me. The other was getting mad because he was being “interrupted” from whatever he was doing. It wasn’t until I would go back and tell mom, “He didn’t do it,” that I would get the magic words. “Tell him ‘Mom says.’” That was the proverbial knockout punch. He was forced to do what I said because of the authority I represented. Authority is something amazing. The bible tells us in Romans that all authority is placed there by God himself. Now the way it works is there is someone in charge, in this case my mom, who sends out an envoy (me) to request something to happen. Unless I go in the character and authority of my mom, my brother would not listen to me. There was no pain for disobedience, or reward for quick obedience associated with me, just with my mom.
The interesting thing about this scripture is it actually gives us the same type of story with regards to a slave named Onesimus. Onesimus was a slave owned by a very wealthy man named Philemon who converted to Christianity after Paul visited a church. Onesimus ran away, which by Roman law meant Philemon could kill him, and found his way to Paul. While with Paul, he also became a Christian. Onesimus came to Paul and I am sure got advice, but Paul knowing about authority told him that he needed to go back to his master. To keep him alive, Paul sent a letter to his owner. He says in verse 17, “welcome him [Onesimus] back as you would me.”
I am sure Philemon and Onesimus were in an interesting place. One the one hand, Onesimus was a slave to Philemon, and ran away. When he accepted Christ, Onesimus became a spiritual brother to his master. However, since Philemon still had ownership over Onesimus, Paul had to write a compelling letter to Philemon to secure Onesimus’ life. It almost seems like Paul is black-mailing Philemon too at one point, but Paul is just utilizing the character and authority God has given him. As a minister, Paul’s mission is to bring people to relationship with God. He also knew authority, because he was under the authority of Jesus Christ, who God gave authority to.
The bible tells us clearly that when we become followers of Christ, we have the authority to do many things, greater even than Jesus did. But if we don’t do them with the character and authority of Jesus, we will run into trouble. There’s this story in Acts about the sons of a man named Sceva. His son’s went around doing what Jesus did, but did not do it in the character and authority of Jesus. The interesting thing is that at one point, they are trying to drive out a demon. They say, “in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches.” And if demonic exorcising isn’t scary enough, the demon actually talks back. “Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?”
The bible tells us that this demon possessed man beat up all 7 sons of Sceva and sent them running away naked. This story serves to illustrate the need to go in the character and authority of Jesus Christ at all times.


Prayer
Jesus I thank you that you gave me the authority to do many things. Today, I choose to operate in the character and Authority you gave me. I pray that I would be able to accept the mantle you gave me of ambassador and use it to the best of my ability! I praise you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Questions to grow deeper still
• What hinders you from being an ambassador in this way?
• What is one area of your life that is not under the authority of Jesus Christ?
• What ways can you pull that area back to alignment with the authority of Jesus?

Faith is Foundational
Hebrews 11:1-3
1-2The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.
 3By faith, we see the world called into existence by God’s word, what we see created by what we don’t see.

Take it deeper
Lately, I have been noticing the extreme lengths science has gone to avoid the elephant in the room of creation. Most scientists will say that it is impossible for God to exist because there’s all this ‘proof’ that the world is millions of years old and that it was caused by a big bang. I recently watched a documentary by Ben Stein (the Clear Eyes guy with the monotone voice), and in it he went to different evolutionists and asked them if there was a possibility for intelligent design. He didn’t even ask them their opinion about if God was behind it. At one point, he was interviewing Richard Dawkins, one of the forerunners of Evolutionary theory, and asked him where life came from. Dawkins goes on to say that life was on crystals and after millions of years, it evolved. So Stein asked him, “So where did life come from?” and he got all defensive and said, “I’ve already told you, it was on the crystals.” Hard to believe eh? If you believe that evolution is real, I challenge to ask yourself why you believe it? The term “evolution” is actually a true thing, as it relates to change. However, when you are talking about all the different offshoots of Darwin’s theory, that’s when it takes a trip off of center.
As we see in Hebrews ll:3, God literally called the world into existence. Now I ask you, what is harder to believe? That an all powerful, all knowing, God created everything intelligently and purposefully, or to believe that it just “kinda happened?” Scientists are starting to get to the point where they see all of creation proclaiming God, but as a reward, they are met with opposition and negativity. Science is not about taking a back-woods theory and making it real, its about discovering what is already there. Hebrews 11:1 says that the “fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living.” EVERYTHING in life, all of creation, all the stuff we take for granted is held up on one point, faith. The way Peterson puts it here is incredible, it’s like a handle for all the stuff we don’t see and can’t measure. Problem is, too many people are grabbing the WRONG HANDLE!
At the conclusion of that movie (called “Expelled: No Science allowed.”) each and every scientist was either forced to retire, quit, or get fired. On top of that, their legitimate research was never published. One thing that will be interesting is to see how much science will continue to be affected by this wrong foundation! Its interesting to me how much complexity that God put into everything, yet when you watch it at a high level, it looks so simple and elegant. I wonder if for every “new” discovery people make in Science, God’s adding another layer to it just to prove He’s behind it. Sort of like a trail of gum-drops leading to a candy house. Every time, though, we (humanity) seem to miss the giant candy house (the simplicity of God creating everything) right in front of us. FAITH is the foundation upon with all other concepts in Christianity must be based. If we cannot approach God, our father, with enough blind faith to just BELIEVE Him and what He says, we will just continue to miss the point, so convinced that we know better than everyone.

Prayer
Father God Thank you! Thank you for revealing yourself to me. I pray, like Paul, that I would begin to understand the all surpassing greatness and mystery of all creation. I pray that you would help me to use my faith and grow it up so I can live the way you want me to live and be who you want me to be. I thank you Jesus, that you are the CHIEF CORNERSTONE upon which I build my life and I praise you. I pray all these things, Oh Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Questions to grow deeper still
• What is one thing about God you find hard to believe?
• Why do you find it so hard to believe?
• What can you do to begin to believe?

Lucky Strike Words
James 3:3-10
3-5A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it!
 5-6It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.
 7-10This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can’t tame a tongue—it’s never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!
 10-12My friends, this can’t go on. A spring doesn’t gush fresh water one day and brackish the next, does it? Apple trees don’t bear strawberries, do they? Raspberry bushes don’t bear apples, do they? You’re not going to dip into a polluted mud hole and get a cup of clear, cool water, are you?

Take it deeper
When I was a young boy, we used to go camping. As you can imagine, we had a fire to keep warm, and in some cases cook food. Obviously, I was enamored by the flames as they licked at the wood and the rocks of the fire circle. I used to look for sticks that I could use to play with the fire. I never got burned by camp fires; I had a healthy respect for the power they held. The most I ever did playing with the fire was to poke it and prod it and move wood around so it burned better. Our fires were relatively small by comparison, but my uncles who would take their trailers with us, had a much more liberal approach to fire making. They would get a nice “shoe melting” fire that was barely contained in the campsite, let alone the fire ring.
As you undoubtedly read, James uses the imagery of a forest fire that is set off by a small spark. It interesting to think about the juxtaposition he uses to describe the tongue. Any of us who have read this verse before kind of gloss over what he’s eluding too, but don’t get quite what he is saying here. James is saying, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that our words have power. Like the rudder on a ship, the bit in the mouth of a horse, or the Lucky Strike match that starts a forest fire; words have power.
Think for a second, the words you have said to other people in the last hour, the last day, and the last week. Were all of them positive? Before some of you start getting down on yourself for possible negative words remember that God doesn’t want to slap us over the head with this word. He want us to realize that our words affect things here on earth AND in Spiritual realms we can’t see. You have power in your words that is more powerful than any beating, injury, or abuse. You can hurl one negative word at someone and ruin their life. Or, you have the choice to hurl a positive word, an encouraging word, and help them receive the breakthrough they so desperately need. The question is what negative words have you spoken about others? What negative words have you spoken about yourself? Those words impact us. Whether we like to admit it or not, the words we speak about ourselves have just as much to do with who we are today as the choices we have made. Now we can either embrace what GOD thinks about us and begin speaking that into our own lives; or, we can believe negative things (whether the enemy sent them to us or we came up with them on our own). Do the same exercise I had you do a little bit ago and change the “other people” for “me.” God is the master of positive words, his words literally create things. He spoke and light came into existence. Here’s a thought for you, the bible says that God looked out and saw the various things he created and called them “Good.” Do you know that if God had not called creation good, it would not have been good? Now, I don’t believe it would have been evil, but just by the sheer fact that God called creation good, made it good. He looked at man and called us “VERY GOOD!” God is not a liar, so what makes you or me think that God is wrong? God told us, through Jesus, that there are NO boundaries to him except Jesus. We have to go through Jesus. So then why are we so insistent on manufacturing non-existent walls between us and God? Is it because we feel we are just too bad to be near Him? Funny thing, God doesn’t think that, in fact, He sent Jesus to earth to fix that gap. Now that the gap is fixed, the bible says we can approach our Father God, the KING of all the universe, of all of eternity, and receive grace and strength and peace, and whatever else we need when we are in crisis. YOU CAN DO WHAT GOD SAYS YOU CAN DO, and you can most definitely be who God says you can be.
We have to stop the negative speech about others and about ourselves if we are to start to reverse the cycle of negativity and Lucky Strike words that start forest fires in people’s lives. Just stop, put a 5 second gate on anything you want to say to someone. If you can’t wait 5 seconds to think about what you are going to say, you probably shouldn’t say it.

Prayer
Father, I pray that you would please forgive me for talking negatively about your children and about myself. I realize that my words have power and I pray that you would show me how to tame my tongue. I know, father, that James says no man can tame the tongue. But I also know that Jesus said, “With God all things are possible.” So today, I pray that you would teach me how to control the lucky strike words. God I pray that you would help me to recognize areas in my life that are negative and begin to show me how to prune those areas off. They are suckers that deprive my spiritual life from all the nutrients you want to give me. I thank you for all that you are about to do and I declare today that I believe you! I pray this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Questions to grow deeper still
• What words have you spoken about someone recently?
• Were they positive? If so, why not take a moment to pray over them too; if not, why not go and apologize?

One Star to the Right and Straight on till Morning
1 Peter 4:12-16
12-13Friends, when life gets really difficult, don't jump to the conclusion that God isn't on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.
 14-16If you're abused because of Christ, count yourself fortunate. It's the Spirit of God and his glory in you that brought you to the notice of others. If they're on you because you broke the law or disturbed the peace, that's a different matter. But if it's because you're a Christian, don't give it a second thought. Be proud of the distinguished status reflected in that name!

2 Peter 1:19-21
19-21We couldn't be more sure of what we saw and heard—God's glory, God's voice. The prophetic Word was confirmed to us. You'll do well to keep focusing on it. It's the one light you have in a dark time as you wait for daybreak and the rising of the Morning Star in your hearts. The main thing to keep in mind here is that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of private opinion. And why? Because it's not something concocted in the human heart. Prophecy resulted when the Holy Spirit prompted men and women to speak God's Word.

Take it deeper
Have you ever been so excited to go somewhere that you had a hard time sleeping? That excitement is something that is infectious. My wife and I went to Disneyland on our 1 year anniversary. Neither of us had been there in a number of years so we decided to go and have fun before settling down with children. I told my wife when we got into the park, I didn’t care what rides we went on while we were there, I wanted to go on Space Mountain first because it takes so long to get on the ride usually. So we get there and stand in line for like 45 minutes. As we get on, the nervous excitement flooded my veins and I couldn’t help but smile. We go on the ride. I screamed. The whole time. When we were done, I was giggling like a little girl for about 30 minutes. That type of excitement is why they call Disneyland “The Happiest place on Earth.”
What is strange to me is how so many Christians treat our calling with kind of a mild disdain or like a chore. A chore is something we don’t like to do, but have to do. Whereas, the calling God gave us is something we should WANT to do and we feel compelled to do. We go day to day trying to add God’s plan as a bolt on to the life WE want to live. Then when things like tithing seem impossible, we make excuses, “I just can’t afford it.” We should be treating our calling like a trip to Disneyland! But instead, we treat it like a trip to Lincoln City, Nebraska. Even when we are feeling “abused” as Peter put it in 1 Peter, we must always remember that GOD is here with us. We have to bear in mind that we are really fortunate when people mistreat us not the other way around. Then we have to know it deep down in our gut. God is working, my pastor, Pastor Gordon Banks, says it like this: “Just because it hasn’t manifest yet doesn’t mean it’s a no. God’s already spoken it into existence, it just hasn’t manifest yet.”
Remember that we bear Christ’s name, authority, and power on earth. We are his people, his priests, his ambassadors. In order to operate in that role, we have to have confidence in the name, character, nature, and power of our Lord and King. I want to encourage you to find a way that you can jump start excitement in your life regarding your calling. Instead of telling people, “I have to” tell people “I get to!” That will begin the process of helping you to understand that it is a privilege, and that it’s ok to be excited about privileges.

Prayer
Father I pray that you would stir up a spirit of excitement for your calling in my life. I will choose to make decisions that honor you and choose to be excited about the calling you have given me. I pray this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Questions to grow deeper still
• What has God called you to?
• What hinders you from being excited about your calling? Why?
• What ways can you get closer to God?

The Modeling Agency
1 John 2:4-6
 4-6If someone claims, "I know him well!" but doesn't keep his commandments, he's obviously a liar. His life doesn't match his words. But the one who keeps God's word is the person in whom we see God's mature love. This is the only way to be sure we're in God. Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived.

2 John 1:7
7There are a lot of smooth-talking charlatans loose in the world who refuse to believe that Jesus Christ was truly human, a flesh-and-blood human being. Give them their true title: Deceiver! Antichrist!

3 John 1:11
 11Friend, don't go along with evil. Model the good. The person who does good does God's work. The person who does evil falsifies God, doesn't know the first thing about God.

Take it deeper
Today I want to impress upon you the importance of being a real person. We have a tendency to create a mask to hide who we really are. The unfortunate thing is that most often, we think we are defending ourselves. By doing so, we are actually doing the opposite, we are making ourselves out to be like the verse in 2 John “smooth-talking charlatans.” When it comes down to it, we need to focus on being people of integrity. Always saying what we mean and meaning what we say. Always being the same person no matter where we are. We need to always do good. Always obey God, always give, always serve, always love.
The problem is when we do create masks, we end up discrediting not only ourselves, but also all the other Christians around the world who have sweat, bled, and cried to reach those people. We have to get to a place where we are confident enough of who we are and WHOSE we are that we can just be the same person wherever we go.


Prayer
Father I pray that you would give me the strength to be real. Help me to remove the masks that I have been hiding behind. I pray that you would forgive me for any times I have held on to masks because of insecurity. I pray that you would show me who I am. I love you father, and I pray this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Questions to grow deeper still
• What masks do you wear?
• Why?
• What is the biggest hindrance to you living a life of integrity?

Love People, Hate Sin
Jude 20-25
20-21But you, dear friends, carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the center of God's love, keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ. This is the unending life, the real life!
 22-23Go easy on those who hesitate in the faith. Go after those who take the wrong way. Be tender with sinners, but not soft on sin. The sin itself stinks to high heaven.
 24-25And now to him who can keep you on your feet, standing tall in his bright presence, fresh and celebrating—to our one God, our only Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Master, be glory, majesty, strength, and rule before all time, and now, and to the end of all time. Yes.

Take it deeper
 I have been really hung up on this portion of scripture lately. I think it is because God has been using it to teach me a TON of spiritual concepts. The biggest one is the one I want to talk about today. I know we briefly covered this topic once before, but I want to go over it today because I believe it is a crucial piece to our faith. If we can get this point, a lot of problems we have will become easier to deal with. I was raised in a Christian home; but, we were always given the option to follow God or not. Naturally, when my mom adopted a boy, and 2 girls, they had the same option. My parents always encouraged them to accept belief in God, and it seemed as though they had. After a couple of not so fun decisions, one of my sisters decided to ask me for bus fare and a ride to the bus stop. She told me she was going to go to a friend’s in Fife. We didn’t hear from her for a few months. Since then, she has been living on her own (she was 17 at the time). She got her GED and just disappeared for awhile. When we found her again, she was working and living with a guy who was probably 30 years older than her. Still, despite all the help my parents and I provided, she wouldn’t accept Jesus, in fact, she seemed to be going towards the hard rebellious culture, almost Satanic.
 I was moved by a thought that God was talking to me about. He told me “Love her through it.” I didn’t understand that. I know God loves everyone, but am I really supposed to also? Now, you may be thinking, “Sam the whole point of Christianity is to emulate Christ.” You are right, but you are also missing the fact that there is probably someone who is like my sister in your life. A brother, an aunt, a parent, an uncle, a best friend, or even your spouse; they are the faces of this message. They are the ones that we deal with everyday, showing love to, who contrary to what we want, go away from God instead of towards Him.
“Go easy on those who hesitate in the faith. Go after those who take the wrong way. Be tender with sinners, but not soft on sin. The sin itself sinks to high heaven.” Here, Jude separates sinner from sin. We are all sinners, true, but did Jude really just tell us to remove sin when thinking about a person? It is hard because when we look at that person, all we see is behavior, attitude, and pain. However, when God looks at them, He sees a hurting person, separate from their actions, and their potential. A person is not defined by what they do. God looks past their behaviors and sees their hearts and his own fingerprints that were left there at conception.The NIV puts this verse in a way that is very intriguing. It says “SNATCH THEM FROM THE FLAMES.” And “Hate the clothing that is contaminated by their sin.” So today, we have a choice! We can love people, regardless of what they have done; or, we can choose to be their judge and avoid them. The way we do it is we force ourselves to see them as a person. So instead of saying, “That man is a liar,” we have to say, “that man lied.” That takes the behavior off the man, makes us more easily able to identify with him, and less likely to judge him. We all lie, so saying “that man lied” we are able to love him WHERE HE IS. That’s what the world needs, not us asking them to change before they can even be welcome in our groups.  I think this is how Jesus loved the prostitutes, sinners, and tax collectors and this is definitely how he wants us to love people now. Whether a person practices homosexuality, or lies, we have to be able to look at that person the way Christ did, with a heart full of love that says, “How can I help you” instead of “You are a sinner!”

Prayer
Father, I thank you that you have given me the ability to see people apart from their behaviors. I pray that you would teach me to love them like you love them. That you would teach me to be hard on sin, while loving the sinner that deals with it. Please help me to see that sin is a genetic disease that affects every human being on earth. Help me to learn how to cure this genetic disease with love in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ

Questions to grow deeper still
• Do you have anyone in your life who is like my sister?
• Have you been judgmental about their behaviors instead of going after them and loving them? If so, why not give them a call today and tell them you love them no matter what they do!

Passionate Patience
Revelation 3:7-10
 7Write this to Philadelphia, to the Angel of the church. The Holy, the True—David's key in his hand, opening doors no one can lock, locking doors no one can open—speaks:
 8"I see what you've done. Now see what I've done. I've opened a door before you that no one can slam shut. You don't have much strength; I know that; you used what you had to keep my Word. You didn't deny me when times were rough.
 9"And watch as I take those who call themselves true believers but are nothing of the kind, pretenders whose true membership is in the club of Satan—watch as I strip off their pretensions and they're forced to acknowledge it's you that I've loved.
 10"Because you kept my Word in passionate patience, I'll keep you safe in the time of testing that will be here soon, and all over the earth, every man, woman, and child put to the test.

Take it deeper
 The book of Revelation has stirred a ton of controversy among believers and non-believers alike. Revelation is one of those books that seem really negative. Revelation is that way because it deals with judgment and justice being leveled against unrepentant men and creation as a whole because of the in-equality of sin and its proliferation. What I love in this scripture is the way God talks to the church in Philadelphia. He talks about their persistence in faith. Then He goes on to tell them that he will keep them safe during the tribulation (great testing) that is about to happen.
 The most substantial part is not actually directly involved with the scripture insomuch as it is just the title. It’s “opening doors no one can lock, locking doors no one can open.” There are times, as we discovered earlier where God will open doors. The problem is we often look at doors that aren’t opened YET and believe God is saying that it will be shut permanently. In reality, God is trying to teach us how to develop “passionate patience.” That means that we have to be so passionate about waiting for God to move that we grow, we pray, we develop, and we are excited about waiting. The thing is, God will unlock and open the door when it is best for US, not when we think it is best for us. I am sure that it would be wonderful if God gave us everything we wanted, when we wanted it. But think about how spoiled we’d be! We would be so distracted by getting something from the great big sugar-daddy in the sky that we would begin worshipping the things he gave us, rather than spending time with God Himself! All the things God gives us are to enhance our relationship with Him, not detract from it. So when we are wanting or needing something; or if God has shown it to us, we need to begin to develop a patience that is so passionate and so expectant, that we dig deeper into God until we get it! That’s when He gives us those things, when we get closer to Him!

Prayer
Father I pray that you would develop passionate patience in me. Help me to see that just because you say “not yet” it doesn’t mean “not at all.”   Thank you for always watching me and giving me strength to stand when I endure trials. I know that this testing of my faith is producing not just endurance, but also passionate patience. I praise you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.


The Deep End of Worship
Revelation 4:1-9
Then I looked, and, oh!—a door open into Heaven. The trumpet-voice, the first voice in my vision, called out, "Ascend and enter. I'll show you what happens next."
 2-6I was caught up at once in deep worship and, oh!—a Throne set in Heaven with One Seated on the Throne, suffused in gem hues of amber and flame with a nimbus of emerald. Twenty-four thrones circled the Throne, with Twenty-four Elders seated, white-robed, gold-crowned. Lightning flash and thunder crash pulsed from the Throne. Seven fire-blazing torches fronted the Throne (these are the Sevenfold Spirit of God). Before the Throne it was like a clear crystal sea.
 6-8Prowling around the Throne were Four Animals, all eyes. Eyes to look ahead, eyes to look behind. The first Animal like a lion, the second like an ox, the third with a human face, the fourth like an eagle in flight. The Four Animals were winged, each with six wings. They were all eyes, seeing around and within. And they chanted night and day, never taking a break:

   Holy, holy, holy
   Is God our Master, Sovereign-Strong,
   The Was, The Is, The Coming.

Take it deeper
When I was 12, my parents took me, my sisters, and my brothers to Disneyland. We traveled with a bunch of our church friends, including our cousins. When we arrived in Anaheim, it was very hot, being about 4pm; we were planning to go to Disneyland the next day. That night, we decided to go swimming at the trailer park’s pool. It was a very large pool, with a 9 foot in the deep end. When you are 12, that is incredibly deep, so it was very fun to be able to go into the deep end and grab diving toys with my cousin. It’s fun to horse around in the shallow end, but to really have fun and swim; you need to be in deep water. It can be scary at times, but when you are there, it really falls down to life or death.
Our Worship of God should be the same way. Typically, you will see people standing, or sitting, just singing the song like a zombie. Eyes glazed over, thinking about what we are going to have for lunch, or what sport, or video game, or movie, or random other activity we are going to do in an hour or so. It is so asinine, because worship should be about expressing our hearts and souls to the creator. It should be about setting our selves down and lifting God up. This is not always the case, some places have very energetic worship, but the question comes, does bouncing around indicate your level of worship? Yes and no. Your heart is the important thing here, not your physical demeanor. However, let me pose this to you: If you were about to die from cancer, or something else, and God miraculously intervened, would you sing and dance? God has healed you from Sin’s affect and saved you life! How much more should we sing and dance because of that alone? What happens when we go deep into worship, on every level, we really connect with God at a different level. Every time we go into worship, we need to use the body that God gave us to fully express our worship. For those of you who don’t move or express your worship physically, do you scream and yell at sporting events? Or concerts? If the answer is yes, I want to encourage you to try taking that same excitement into your worship on every level. While worship is not about just being excited and singing songs, when we don’t show our excitement for God in our church at a service we chose to go to, how will non-Christians ever be excited to meet Jesus? The phrase “Fake it Till you make it,” doesn’t really apply here because true worship is an expression of your love to God. This may help you, before you get to church, count off 10 things that you are thankful for from God and use those ten things when you go into worship. Make worship the best part of your day, because I can guarantee it is the best part of God’s day. Worship is really the only thing that God gets out of our church services.

Prayer
Father I pray that you would excite me again. Reignite my passion to worship you, fill me up with sheer excitement and joy to be in your presence. Father I thank you that you have given me so many things, so many freedoms in Christ. I choose this day to be thankful for all you have done for me; I pray this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Questions to grow deeper still
• Why don’t you worship energetically?
• Was there something in your past that caused you to not express your worship fully?

Being Planted

Psalm 1:1-5
How well God must like you— you don't hang out at Sin Saloon, you don't slink along Dead-End Road, you don't go to Smart-Mouth College. Instead you thrill to God's Word;
you chew on Scripture day and night. You're a tree replanted in Eden, bearing fresh fruit every month, never dropping a leaf, always in blossom. You're not at all like the wicked, who are mere windblown dust—without defense in court, unfit company for innocent people.

Take it deeper
My parents were given a nice looking pine tree for our yard. They planted it and watered it as they had been instructed, but it didn’t grow very much. In fact, they uprooted it and replanted it to another spot in the yard. Still, it didn’t really grow like it should have. Eventually, they moved it to ALMOST the same spot where it had been and the tree shot up like a rocket!
This story actually parallels something I went through about a year ago now. Let me start out by saying that I have been raised in church. Being in that position, one often feels a propensity to serve almost to a fault. I had been in my Uncle’s church until God told the body at that location to move on. It was very tough; I pictured myself getting married there, and continuing to serve there my entire life. However, I got connected to a youth pastor near my house and after much struggle personally (deciding on if I should stay there or not), I felt God telling me that it was where I was supposed to be at this juncture of my life. I had heard correctly, while I was there, I grew; I realized and accepted God’s plan for me to be a pastor and started bible school. I also got my pastoral credentials through the denomination I was in at the time. That was tough for me too, because my Uncle’s church had always been non-denominational, so I had to try and understand the paradigm of denominational ministry.
About 3 years into it, two major things happened to me: I accepted a volunteer position to re-start the young adult ministry and I met my wife. The ministry did not grow, but my wife was exactly what I had prayed to God for 2 years about; someone to sharpen me up, to push me towards God, not away from God. I started to grow more spiritually; I pushed my wife to grow more too. However, no matter how much we worked at it, our church did not seem to be giving us the nutrients we needed. It was a hard thing to consider, leaving the church, because we were leaders, well-known and well-thought of. But when I didn’t fully recognize God’s call to move on, things got a bit uncomfortable. It all came to a head one fateful August week. While I will not go into details of what exactly happened, I will tell you that we very quickly made a move.
The decision we made was probably not the best, but we discovered that our time at the church was causing a division in our marriage! Something that church should NEVER EVER do! So to save our marriage, we chose to take the hard road of uprooting ourselves and moving on. It was not fun. We had people trying to call and email us telling us that we had abandoned them and let them down. We had one woman tell us that we had failed her. All of these things tore at me for a long time until God gave me a revelation in the form of my own words in a sermon I had preached on “Roots.” God reminded me about the aforementioned pine tree. He reminded me that the soil has to support growth for the tree. Just like that tree, my wife and I needed to up-root and move on to find out that we were not growing or being fed spiritually. A fact that was evident, albeit hard to accept.
My wife and I prayed a lot, went to a few other churches before accepting the invitation of a good friend of mine, Dango. Dango is one of the strongest Christian men I have met and I love him dearly. I don’t know if he realizes this, (so if you are reading this my friend, thank you!) but his invitation brought us to the church we are at now. If you are in the Federal Way, Washington area, I encourage you to look up Overcomer Covenant Church. This church has helped us grow up by leaps and bounds. The soil is right for us to grow.
Today, you may be facing a very similar situation and what’s more, you may not even know it! Everything in life goes forward; if you look at grass, trees, birds, and other wildlife, you’ll see that all grow, live, and move. Staying stagnant spiritually is not an option in God’s eyes. To Him you either have to continue growing and getting closer to Him, or you move backwards and walk away. He HATES lukewarm, mediocre, and spiritually stagnant (See Revelation 3:14 to see more!). He wants you to get closer and closer to Him and grow up! You were not meant to just drink spiritual milk, it’s time to put that away and eat meat!If you are in that position and you would like to talk to someone, please contact me. My wife and I would be glad to pray with you and talk things out with you.

Prayer
 Jesus, I thank you that you died so I could live. I thank you that the life you want me to live is full of promise and overflowing with abundance according to your word in Jeremiah and John. Father I pray that you would help me to see if my life is mediocre, lukewarm, or stagnant spiritually. I pray that you would give me clear direction on what to do, whether to just read more bible, pray more, or to make the tough choice to move on from the church body that I am in. I thank you that you are already at work in this situation in my life and that you will guide and direct me. I pray all this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Questions to grow deeper still
• What are some reasons you are not growing (or growing slowly)?
• What do you feel the solution is? Why don’t you pray and ask God to give you discernment for your problem
• IF you need to talk to myself and my wife, please email me to set up an appointment: Samberfam@live.com

God is a Chiropractor

Psalm 11:4-7
But God hasn't moved to the mountains; his holy address hasn't changed. He's in charge, as always, his eyes taking everything in, his eyelids unblinking, examining Adam's unruly brood
inside and out, not missing a thing. He tests the good and the bad alike; if anyone cheats, God's outraged. Fail the test and you're out, out in a hail of firestones, Drinking from a canteen filled with hot desert wind. 7 God's business is putting things right; he loves getting the lines straight,
Setting us straight. Once we're standing tall, we can look him straight in the eye.

Take it deeper
 Have you ever been to a chiropractor? A chiropractor is someone that adjusts people’s bodies to make them work properly. It is funny to think that we have a whole industry devoted to adjusting our physical bodies because of what we do to them just by living. While I have never been to one, I have heard that chiropractics can been quite addicting because the body feels so good when it has been adjusted. I am sure that before you are adjusted the first time, you have no idea how out of shape you are. In some cases, the adjustment can hurt to begin with, but the more and more you go, the better it feels. That is similar to when we do exercise. It doesn’t feel very good at first, the day after we are usually sore and in pain. But after we repeat it over and over again, we gradually get used to it, and our bodies allow us to do that exercise more effortlessly.
 Did you know that God is like a chiropractor? Seriously! This psalm of David reminds us that God's business is putting things right. It's pretty incredible. Did you know that each day, your spine compacts by an average of 1/16th of an inch? It is caused by walking, sitting, doing normal activities. The “setting us straight” that is mentioned is actually discipline! The bible says that “no child loves discipline” and that it is not pleasant to have to endure it, but in the end we will “reap a harvest of righteousness and peace” (Hebrews 11, the NIV). In other words, when we are disciplined by God, we actually grow. In Verse 7, it talks about "setting us straight" and once we are "standing tall" we can see God face to face.
It hurts to be adjusted sometimes, especially if you haven't ever been adjusted. But did you ever notice how the more frequently we get adjusted the less it hurts? And did you ever notice how when you are adjusted frequently you notice when you are not adjusted properly?
Life with God is like that. When we are constantly allowing God to adjust us, its the same thing, its hard at first, but when we allow God to do it more often it becomes easier. And after awhile, we start to notice when we are just slightly out of alignment. Today, I encourage you to not buck the chiropractic work of God in your life! He’s doing this for your benefit, so that you can walk tall, stand firm, and live out the mission he has for you in this world!

Prayer
Father, I pray that you would adjust me, according to your word. Please forgive me for bad habits, mindsets, attitudes, and actions that I partake in every day that cause me to need correction. Father I submit myself to your Lordship and I thank you that you are guiding and correcting me each and every day. Jesus I thank you that you chose to die on the cross so that I could face discipline instead of death. I thank you that you are so kind when correcting me and so patient with how you treat my short-sighted selfishness. I thank you for all this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.


Questions to grow deeper still
• Can you remember a time when God adjusted you?
• Why do you think God did that to you at that time?
• What do you think would have happened if God hadn’t adjusted you?

The Separation of Church and Sin
Psalm 103:6-12
God makes everything come out right; he puts victims back on their feet.
He showed Moses how he went about his work, opened up his plans to all Israel.
God is sheer mercy and grace; not easily angered, he's rich in love.
He doesn't endlessly nag and scold, nor hold grudges forever.
He doesn't treat us as our sins deserve, nor pay us back in full for our wrongs.
As high as heaven is over the earth, so strong is his love to those who fear him.
And as far as sunrise is from sunset, he has separated us from our sins.

Take it deeper
Have you ever been accused of doing something that you did not do? When my cousin and I were young boys, we used to play outside all the time. Most of the time, it was at my house. He would come over and we would play GI-Joes, or Cars, or just run around with our wooden swords or Nerf guns. We were, in short, playful boys. One time, while we were at his house, we were playing outside, and his father told us to make sure we didn’t put any dirt or toys in the grass and leave them. He was going to mow the lawn in a little bit, and didn’t want obstructions. We went inside and had lunch, then decided to go to my cousin’s room to play with Lego’s. While we were playing, his dad came upstairs and confronted us about a pile of dirt that was in the yard. Neither of us had a clue what it was, or how it got there, but it was over by where we were playing. We punished for something we found out the dog had done.
I am sure we all can agree with the idea that we have made mistakes. We all make them on a day to day basis. What I love about God, and how David writes this Psalm, is that he tells us how much God loves us. God created humanity to be perfect and be in perfect relationship with Him. However, he also gave us free choice. In selfishness and pride, Humans were talked into the choice of sin. First Eve was deceived, and then Adam willingly chose to eat of the fruit that God told them not to eat. From that point on, Humans have had this troubling problem called sin which has separated us from our loving Creator. To symbolize this, God had the nation of Israel create a veil in the Temple to separate the Holy place from the MOST HOLY place. This veil was not just a physical separator, but a symbolic separator to show that as long as man is tainted by sin, we cannot approach God’s presence and live. Very few men ever got close to God because of that and those who did were those we read about in the Old Testament. Names like David, Moses, Abraham, Gideon are narrated through the annals of history as being Giants in faith.
Of all of them, David is one of the most interesting. He was given the throne of the nation of Israel while he was a boy because of the un-wavering stubbornness of King Saul. Saul, who had once been a humble, meek man, was transformed over the course of his reign into an arrogant, selfish despot! The worst part of it was that he thought that he was doing God’s work and justified his actions in the eyes of the prophets and God. To which Samuel (the prophet at the time) said, “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord?” To read more about this account, read 1 Samuel 15. 
David, by comparison, knew how to repent. Did you know that repentance is the key to restored relationship with God? In a beautiful picture of love, God sent Jesus, his only son (John 3:16) to die for us. It was God’s will that He be smitten by man to save man from our sins. Here’s the astounding part about it: As Jesus died, the veil that was separating the presence of God from the people was torn from the top to the bottom! The veil wasn’t just a piece of lace batting, it was a thick curtain made of many, many animal hides. It was so heavy, that it could not be moved by one man. Then, Jesus came and died and when it ripped, God fulfilled the words of David in Psalm 103: “God makes everything come out right; he puts victims back on their feet.” I love what it says next:
God is sheer mercy and grace; not easily angered, he's rich in love. He doesn't endlessly nag and scold, nor hold grudges forever. He doesn't treat us as our sins deserve, nor pay us back in full for our wrongs. As high as heaven is over the earth, so strong is his love to those who fear him. And as far as sunrise is from sunset, he has separated us from our sins. (vv. 8-12)
That last sentence says that God took our sins, when Jesus died on the cross, and placed them at the point where sunrise and sunset meet. The NIV says, “as far as the east is from the west.” Get on an airplane and fly north, and eventually, you’ll be flying south. However, if you get on an airplane and head east, you will fly around the world over and over again still flying east! That’s like trying to catch up to where the sunrise and sunset meet! It’s so impossibly hard to find/get too, that God decided to put our sin there when we repent and call on Jesus as our savior (Romans 10:9-10, 1 John 1:9). God loves us so much that He took our sins and moved them, but the question I have for you is how many of them do you hold on to? When we hang on to those sins, it is like we are trying to repair that torn veil and block ourselves out from all the riches of the kingdom of God. We need to let them go today!

Prayer
Jesus, I thank you for coming to earth to remove the barrier of sin. I thank you that you died on the cross for my sins. I thank you that anytime I sin, I can come to you, repent, and be forgiven. I pray that you would help me with any sins I am harboring right now. Help me to let go of them so they can be gone permanently. I pray that you would give me courage to step into relationship with you and continue to grow in love and mercy. I thank you and praise you for who you are and what you do in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Questions to grow deeper still
• What Sins are you hanging onto that God wants to remove?
• Have you accepted Jesus as your savior? Would you like to rededicate your life to him today?
• Is there any other barrier that keeps you from relationship with God?

Health Begins in the Heart
Proverbs 4:20-27
Dear friend, listen well to my words; tune your ears to my voice.
Keep my message in plain view at all times. Concentrate! Learn it by heart!
Those who discover these words live, really live; body and soul, they're bursting with health.
 23-27 Keep vigilant watch over your heart; that's where life starts. Don't talk out of both sides of your mouth; avoid careless banter, white lies, and gossip. Keep your eyes straight ahead; ignore all sideshow distractions. Watch your step, and the road will stretch out smooth before you. Look neither right nor left; leave evil in the dust.

Take it deeper
Proverbs is an amazing book! It is so chalked full of wisdom that if you read a chapter a day each month, you will become a person so full of wisdom you will spill out to everyone you meet! One amazing portion of scripture is found in Proverbs 4. Solomon, arguably the wisest person to ever live, gives some simple instruction regarding life. This portion could be mined for years because of all the precious wisdom, but you would only scratch the surface! Solomon indicates that life itself is started at the heart. He says that we have to guard it, protect it, keep it safe. As people, how often do we let things affect us? How strong of a guard do we put on our heart? Vigilance is the key to protecting our hearts, we have to keep our eyes open.
Have you ever met a girl that is so head over heals in love with a guy that abuses her? As tough a situation like that is, there is a simple truth at the bottom of it. The girl didn’t protect her heart from getting involved. She fell in love with him and she is so totally blinded by the emotional trickery that she becomes a shell of a woman. She will run to that man time and again because she believes that she loves him. Her heart is involved. However, if you take your heart and guard it, only allowing good things to come in, you will begin to flourish. The writer says in v.22, “Those who discover these words live, really live; body and soul, they’re bursting with health.” Men have to be careful of this too, if we get too caught up in camaraderie with the wrong person or group we can be twisted very easily into doing things that we will regret! In fact, men tend to take longer to fall into that trap, but go in more willingly. To avoid all of this, we must follow the instructions in vv. 23-27, “Don’t talk out of both sides of your mouth; avoid careless banter, white lies, and gossip.” Lying, careless banter, “white lies,” and gossip all infect us with a pervasive infection of sin that infects our heart first, and then feeds our lips with more of the same. To avoid it, we must put off lying, careless banter, and gossip altogether and “bind truth” around our waists. When we allow those things to pollute our lives, we end up polluting anything God wants to do in us.

Prayer
Father, please forgive me for careless banter, and gossip. Forgive me for lying. Forgive me for allowing those things to come into the source of my life, my heart. I pray that you would help me to uproot all the evil that is in my heart because of those things in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ.





Questions to grow deeper still
• Have you gossiped lately?
• Have you been guarding your heart?
• Why not take time to pray and ask God to reveal areas in your life that are allowing your heart to attack you.

Oxymoron: Generous=More
Proverbs 11:24
4 The world of the generous gets larger and larger;
   the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.

Take it deeper
 Have you ever noticed how many oxymoron type statements the bible makes? A big example is “If you want to save your life, you must lose it.” Another one is found in Proverbs 11:24. According to Solomon, the generous gain more and more, while those who cling to things will not gain anything. A practical example of this is if you stick a quarter in a masonry jar. If you reach into that jar and grab the quarter, and hold on to it, you won’t be able to pull your hand out. However, if you pour it out, into your hand, you will get the quarter easily! God put a principle in place at the beginning of the world. I mentioned this principle on the “Exposure to the Elements” devotional. Every time you sow something, you reap something. We understand this for commerce, because when we work (sow), we get a paycheck (reap). When we use our paycheck to buy groceries (sow), we get to take the groceries home and consume them (reap). Most often, this principle has a 1:1 ratio. However, if you are talking about giving to God, or at God’s request, you’ll find that there is a different ratio at work. When you tithe (give the first 10th) of your increase, God blesses you with more than you can contain. To read more about this, read 2 Corinthians 9 and you’ll understand a bit more about giving and receiving.
 This proverb directly relates to that. It says that when we make ourselves generous, God makes our world bigger! What does that mean? The word “world” used here is the Hebrew “yesh” it means your being or your existence. So literally what this verse means is that if you are generous, your very existence is enriched and you are given more and more. Isn’t it amazing? The unfortunate part of this is that many of us feel that we can’t be generous because we don’t have a lot as it is. God doesn’t want a monetarily large donation, he wants your heart! God wants to see someone who gives cheerfully of whatever he is able to give and God will provide the rest.
That kind of crazy-faith is what undoubtedly draws God’s attention and provision to us. Then, when we are blessed, we are able to be a blessing to others. I encourage you to look for ways to be generous. Don’t just be stingy, but give whatever you can! You hear often in church a reference to “Time, Talent, or Treasure;” this references different ways you can give and honor God. By spending time with God, or someone God has told you to spend time with, by using a talent he has given you for HIS GLORY, or by giving money, you are honoring God. Whatever way you choose, make sure you are being generous with it!

Prayer
God I thank you for blessing this offering I give of my time, my talent, or my treasure. I pray that you would bless my generosity and be glorified by it. I pray that out of my increase, you would be pleased with my generosity. I thank you for giving it to me in the first place in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ

Questions to grow deeper still
• What areas of your life are you generous in?
Do you know what your time, talent, or treasure is? If not why not take time to write them down?
The Right Company
Proverbs 27:17
17 You use steel to sharpen steel,
   and one friend sharpens another.

Take it deeper
2 years before I met my wife, I prayed this verse over my future spouse. I prayed every night before I went to bed that God would give me a woman who would sharpen me, my faith, and my love for Him. Little did I know that God would answer my prayer so completely in my wife, Amber. We met at a summer camp for youth. Her youth pastor was chatting with me as she walked down the stairway for lunch. He leans over to me and says, “How’d you like to wake up to that every morning?” Little did I know, God wanted me to spend the rest of my life with her.
Every day, she gives me words of wisdom that encourage me and drive me closer to God. In many ways, she is the best friend I could ever ask for. In fact, this verse describes how a good friend should treat you. Sharpening is a good process, it is not just being quick, keen, and smart, but also learning how to be accountable to others. The sharpening process hurts a lot at first, as you learn to trust someone, but as you begin to trust them more, God works in that relationship and begins to show you more about yourself!
It is so important, whether marriage, or otherwise that you are very careful who you allow to speak into your life. As we discussed previously, the heart is the source of your life. If you allow someone, or multiple people, to speak negativity into your life, you will be dealing with negativity. Another proverb of Solomon says, “Bad company corrupts good character.” If we hold bad company and allow them access to our wellspring (Proverbs 4), it is the same as sticking steel into an acid bath! The acid will eat away at the integrity of the metal, causing it to fall apart and disintegrate at a molecular level. We too, will begin to fall apart at the deepest, most basic levels when we allow the acid of wrong company to eat away at us. I challenge you to look at those you hold close to you. Re-evaluate their position in your life. See if they really deserve to be a close friend. If you find that they are just speaking negatively, have a heart to heart with them. Something like, “Look I really like you a lot, you are a good friend, but all the negativity you spout out of your mouth is not helping me to grow spiritually.” Give them an opportunity to change. If they value your friendship, they will do what they can! If they say, “I am just me, deal with it,” or something to that effect, then you may want to consider spending less time with them. Surround yourself with Godly people, who you learn from and allow yourself to grow in their company.

Prayer
Father, Thank you for teaching me this lesson of good company. I pray that you would give me wisdom on how to pick the right company and how to let the wrong company go. I thank you that you have given me your Holy Spirit as a thermometer to tell when I am with the right kinds of people. I praise you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ

Questions to grow deeper still
• Are you holding on to a relationship that is negative?
• Are you having a hard time allowing people to sharpen you?
• What are 2 ways you can become more accountable today?

Final Thoughts
Life is hard. We deal with so much on a day to day basis. Young adults leave their faith every day, children abandon parents, parents abandon their children. Sin is promoted publicly and privately. Some may ask where God is in all of this. The same place He’s always been, watching and waiting for people to allow Him to move. God is such a just God that He will not violate our freedom of choice, regardless of how much goes wrong. We have to invite Him in. That is why it is so important to stay focused on Jesus. Our enemy is very real, but so is our Salvation, Jesus Christ. We live in a world of injustice, strife, and discord; and the enemy likes to remind us of that every chance he gets; but Jesus’ blood, shed on Calvary’s tree gives us the opportunity to overcome all the things that the enemy means to use for ill in our lives. No matter what you do, even though you may take 1000 steps away from God, step back; it only takes one step to meet the arms of our Savior. I pray that these Devotionals will encourage and uplift you as you grow and take a step closer to God. In closing, be mindful of this promise found in James 4:7-8 “7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you…”


About the Author
Samuel Warren was born in 1982 to Zane and Marj Warren in Renton, WA. He was raised in a Christian household and learned much of the ways of the Lord growing up. Samuel accepted Christ as his Lord at the age of 14 and accepted the call to pastoral ministry as an adult. Samuel and his wife Amber are expecting their firstborn, Jude, in October 2011. While not pastoring a church at the present, Samuel and Amber are continuing to grow and develop in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 
References:
Peterson, E.H. (2003). The Message: the Bible in contemporary language. Colorado Springs, Colo: NavPress.
Peterson, E.H. (2003). The Message Bible. Retrieved June 30, 2011, from BibleGateway.com website: http://www.biblegateway.com