The school year and devotions

Devos from a book God Calling: August 24 - Sublime Heights Our Lord, we know that Thou art great and able to deliver us. I am your deliverer. Trust in Me absolutely. Know that I will do the very best for you. Be ready and willing for My Will to be done. Know that with Me all things are possible. Cling joyfully to that truth. Say many times, "All things are possible with My Master, My Lord, My Friend." This truth, accepted and firmly believed in, is the ladder up which a soul can climb from the lowest of pits to the sublimest of heights. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. Daniel 3:17 August 25 - Exhaustion We seek Thee as Thou hast told us. And seeking you shall find. None ever sought My Presence in vain. None ever sought My Help in vain. A breath of desire and My Spirit is there -- to replenish and renew. Sometimes weariness and exhaustion are not signs of lack of spirit but of the guiding of the Spirit. Many wonderful things would not have happened but for the physical weariness, the mind-weariness of My servants, which made the resting apart, the giving up of work, a necessity... Though My Way may seem a narrow way it yet leads to Life, abundant Life. Follow it. It is not so narrow but that I can tread it beside you. Never too lonely with such companionship. A comrade infinitely tender, infinitely strong, will tread the way with you. Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Matthew 7:14 I was reading Psalms 55 which is about a betrayal. Psalm 56:22 stood out to me:

"Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken."

Despite all the betrayal and anguish and pain David is going through, he is able to pray and trust God wholly. He trusted in God to "uphold the believer in the struggles of life"(MacArthur Study bible). 2 Cor 4 furthermore expands on this. By putting our burden on God, he strengthens us. we can withstand Life's hurts and pains. God can carry us though the hard times of life , like in the Poem Footsteps. [God] whispered, "My precious child, I love you and will never leave you, never, ever, during your trials and testings. When you saw only one set of footprints, It was then that I carried you." Furthermore," knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;"- Romans 6:6 we are free from sin. Just as Pastor Bob illustrated, the Holy Spirt can empower us to overcome the gravity of sin if we allow it to and humble ourselves. We can do our devotions daily and overcome the sin of being prayerless/not doing devotions. I say sin because it is something we need to repent of and turn away from . It harms our relationship with God. It kinda implies we don't trust; we aren't needy; we don't need to listen and obey Jesus. However, like the savage in Brave New World illustrated, we cannot do this by ourselves. "What if the Church, for heaven's sake Finally stepped up to the plate Took a stand upon God's promise And stormed hell's rusty gates What if His people prayed And those who bear His name Would humbly seek His face yeah And turn from their own way He said that He would hear His promise has been made He'll answer loud and clear, yeah If only we would pray"- What if his people prayed by Casting Crowns. Prayer Devotions Accountabilty P.S. You might be wondering why I titled this the school year and devotions. I titled it becuase I felt that as a community and group of fellow Christians/Catholics, we can build each other up , just like Iron sharpens Iron. We can sharpen each other and change our lives, our schools, our world. We are the future of the Church. feel free to add/comment/correct me

Working with God.

Well the tittle says it all. You must work with God while you are working.
On August 15, 2009 I had a meeting at 8 AM which i was none to please about. This meeting was rather tedious and was not very productive. Which is why when I left it I was not in the best of moods. I came back to work around 11:15 which when I was schedule to work. So me being in a bad mood all ready really didn't want to work at all.
As many people know when you don't want to do something, something always forces you do have to do that that which you did not want to do, and this case was like that. To my surprise I was greeted by The president and owner of the company. They decided to see how I had become the number one sales person in the Tarrant County. They wanted to see if they could gain any tips to help the people that were not doing to well. This was a horrible day all ready, and this was added to it.
I went to talk to my manger to see if he had any advice for me. What he told me was just to go out there and to work like nothing was different. Then we prayed about the day, and we both asked God to help us through out the day to watch over us as we worked.(Get it working with God?)So I went out on the sales floor and was prepared for the day.
My first customer comes in the store, wanting the basic phone, no extras, no features. He just wanted the basics. Well with me I can tell what customers you are not going to convince to get another phone wants they have their minds set on something specific, and he was one of those people, or so I thought.
When the sale was done, he had purchased our most expensive phone, with all the extras and features. When he walked out the door, I had no clue on how and what had happened. This guy also activated the service know as U-Verse with me that day. As I said before, I did nothing more, I did not mention any of this to this gentlemen, He asked about all of these things on his own. This sale alone gave me 16+ units (units=gross profit/44.44). That sale alone hit my daily goal and it was only 12:00PM.
After the day was over I had close to 60 units which is one of the highest store goals for the Tarrant market. Through out these sales I had no control over what was being sold. I thank God for that alone. Without him that wouldn't have been possible. However, this was just the start.
Before we closed, The president and owner (Darreon and Asa) came and pulled me to the side and they congratulated me. They were astonished at my performance. I told them I did nothing, and that my Lord and Saver had done this. I, myself , could not ever dream of being able to do this. Because of this performance.
Through this I learned that, I could never dream of accomplishing anything of this magnitude without God. He is the driver of my life. He has control of what happens to me. I am just here for a short while. He will direct me to the places I need to be. He will provide. He will open oppurtunities.

Here's another verse for us to discuss:

Romans 11:32-
"For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all."

Innocence and Instinct

What we have currently been reading in Romans might come across as difficult to understand for some of us. I know I often times had to re-read portions and stop to sort them out in my head before even moving on. I don't want anyone to be running in the dark with any of these verses, so please share if you are having any difficulty with a particular verse and we will discuss it. I think it would be great for us to hear everyone's personal opinions on certain verses.

I personally think what we're reading right now (in Romans 7) parallels with the main idea of Red's album Innocence and Instinct. As the opening track sings, "What I fear and what I try/ Words I say and what I hide/All the pain, I want it to end/But I want it again." This song seems to describe what Paul says in Romans 7:15-20, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it."

One can re-state these verses in poetry, but basically, Paul is talking about his "fight inside" between his sinful self and his spiritual self. We all, as Christians, have two constantly warring sides as well.

At youth camp, the preacher discussed these sides of "Innocence" and "Instinct." He stated that one side of us wants to worship and obey God, but we feel miserable because of sin. And yet, another side wants to indulge in the pleasures of sin, but we feel miserable because of the Holy Spirit convicting us of our wrong. Thus, Romans 7:21-23: "So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members."

Hence verse 24: "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?"

Well said, Paul! Well said! So what are we to do? We are so wrapped up in our sinful instinct. Is there any way to return to innocence?

Verse 25: "Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

So we don't have to live in misery after all. The war between our sinful and spiritual selves might be hard, but we don't give up. Each day, we are being molded into better people; and we will never see perfection until we get to Heaven.

"Oh, I'm wasting away,
It's part of my instinct,
I'll run away from everything I hate.
Take this away,
Help me escape,
Take this away,
I confess...
...Innocence."
- "Confession (What's Inside My Head)", Red

What is your opinion on the war between "innocence" and "instinct"? Have you ever experienced it in your life? How can we better fight and win? Please share your comments and any verses you'd like to discuss!

Flip!

My youth group recently came home from Student Life Camp 2009 in Branson, Missouri. The theme, as evident in our t-shirts, was Flip! The camp focused on change and doing opposite of what the world does--love your enemies, lose your life to gain it, etc. etc. As a group, we learned a boatload of things from doing quiet time to sponsoring children from Third World countries. Even me personally, I would say I'd learned a different variety of lessons from camp, but looking at my notes from Worship Time, I see that they all connect. Flip! is a transition. Here are the steps:

Day 1: Focus on God's holiness. Once we had the foundation that God was holy, we realized that God deserves our fear, awe, and obedience. We were ready to let Him work.

Day 2: After realizing that God is holy, choose to change. Make it a personal choice to give up everything for God. Don't do it if you're not ready, because if you're not ready to give up everything for God, you are not worthy to follow Him.

Day 3: After making the personal decision to change yourself, choose not to sin. Speaker Francis Chan made an illustration with lemonade and chocolate milk. Both sound really good. We can drink lemonade, or God, and say that it's good; but turn around and drink chocolate milk, or sin, and say that it's also good. However, when you begin mixing the two, it starts tasting sour. God and sin don't taste good together; that's why you're only allowed to choose one.

Day 4: Now that you've decided to dedicate your entire life to God, do what He wants you to do. Go out into the world and live a different life. Sometimes you wish you could do great things, but sometimes God just wants you to do what's small. Rather than dreaming about what you can do tomorrow, ask God what He wants you to do today.

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That's everything in a nutshell. Basically, everything revolves around making choices. We can all take it easy and go through the motions, or emotions. We can focus on what everyone else is doing. But we can't change the world without changing ourselves first.

RIGHT NOW...pray and make the decision to make your faith personal. Don't follow God because your parents and friends want you to. Follow God because you want to.

Allow Me to Raise a Question...

...about Normal Kids vs. Weird Kids. The Normal Kids think that Weird Kids are weird, and the Weird Kids think that Normal Kids have nothing unique about them.

So here are three questions:

Which category do you think you fall under?

Which category do you think God would want us to fall under?

How would God want us to treat the "others"?

Jeremiah 38 1-4

Now Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jucal son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malchiah heard the words that Jeremiah was saying to all the people, 2Thus says the Lord, Those who stay in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but those who go out to the Chaldeans shall live; they shall have their lives as a prize of war, and live. 3Thus says the Lord, This city shall surely be handed over to the army of the king of Babylon and be taken. 4Then the officials said to the king, ‘This man ought to be put to death, because he is discouraging the soldiers who are left in this city, and all the people, by speaking such words to them. For this man is not seeking the welfare of this people, but their harm.’

If you read the rest of the chapter you'll find that Jeremiah was quickly thrown into a well with nothing in it but mud and left to die. However the king has compassion for Jeremiah and pulls him out.

I'm not concentrating on how the story goes however. I'm thinking about what Jeremiah said. When thinking about it as history it's obvious that the reason was because the city was exeedingly wicked and the king did not listen to God. You'll see that if you read chapter 37 However if you look at it from the people's perspective at that time it's also easy to see why they would think that Jeremiah was crazy.

The question I have is could this be going on today? What I mean is, could a pastor or person preach about something unpopular or unacepted yet it is the truth about a subject? In my mind the answer is yes and I'm pretty sure it is in yours as well but I want to know what you guys think.

Questions or comments? I hope what I said wasn't confusing. =S