Tag: Devotional

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Die To Self

14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised. 16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard Him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. ~ 2 Corinthians 5:14-17

I just saw a short of a woman upset that another woman found Christ and stopped dressing in a sexual manner and no longer identified as queer. She went on to explain how she believes “Jesus Glow” is actually just losing yourself and your individuality. She intended this to be an insult, but she’s not wrong in saying this. That is the very definition of following Christ. To lose yourself and become more like Him. To be made into His Image. To literally die to self.

See, our flesh, our desires, they only lead us astray. They only lead to destruction. To death. They may feel good in the moment, but in the end, they leave you without Christ. Christ is peace; without Him, there is only torment. Christ is joy; without Him, there is only depression. Christ is life; without Him, there is only death. Without Christ, there is nothing. We can create our own identity and individuality, but it will never compare to the life the Creator of the Universe has in store for us.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Die To Self.

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Do More Than Words

Revelation 3:1-3

[1]  “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of Him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. [2] Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. [3] Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.’”

Jesus gives seven different instructions to the seven different Churches. To the Church in Sardis, He tells them that He knows their works then hits them with “You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” See, Jesus saw through what they were declaring and presenting. Jesus doesn’t look at the outer, He looks at the heart. He sees what we do in public and what we do in secret.

In today’s world, we have so many people who don’t just claim Christianity, but are known and recognized as devout Christians, but you can’t watch any of the movies they’re in or music they make because of the language and religious exclamatories. If they make clean music, they go on tour with and make music with those who do those things, some even openly talking about consuming the blood of their partner for rituals, They are known for Christianity, but bear no front, They have the reputation of being alive, but they are dead. It’s not enough for the world to see you as a Christian. You have to bear fruit. You have to make a stand for righteousness.

Jesus ends His letter with a call to repentance. A warning that if they don’t wake up, He will come against them like a thief in the night. In other words, the LORD has given them a chance to repent. An opportunity to return to Him before He comes against them. When we claim to be alive, but are dead, we lie. We make ourselves an enemy of God, an enemy of Christ. Therefore, don’t waste your opportunity. Today is the day of salvation, tomorrow is promised to no one.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Do More Than Words. 

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Spread Hope

 

Buying and selling things can be discouraging at times. The other night I stayed up for a late-night stream because my regular hours just wasn’t producing anything. So, I started at 3am, instead of my regular 7:30pm, and hoped for the best. About 30 minutes in, and I’m feeling really discouraged. It’s just me in my stream. No one else. And I feel like giving up. Then out of nowhere someone enters my stream and we start having a chill conversation. I let him know I’m trying to save up for a car and the response? He tips me a $1.

One single dollar turned my entire night around. I didn’t have a game he was interested in, so he tipped me what he could. A single dollar. I’ve never been so rejuvenated by something so small before. Why? Because it wasn’t about the amount of money, but the action itself.

You never know what a little kindness will do for someone. How discouraged or hopeless someone feels. Just the smallest spark can change their entire day. Their entire outlook on their current goal. Kindness won’t cost you much, but it will cause others to hope much.

Today, as you go through your day, look for someone you can share a little kindness with. Someone you can give hope to. It doesn’t even have to be giving them money. Just encouraging someone, sharing a smile, a hug, a meal, something they need, is enough to spark hope in their heart to keep going. Hope that things will get better and they can do it.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Spread Hope.

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The Treatment of Others

10 And He called the people to Him and said to them, “Hear and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.” 12 Then the disciples came and said to Him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” 13 He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. 14 Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” 15 But Peter said to Him, “Explain the parable to us.” 16 And He said, “Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? 18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.” ~ Matthew 15:10-20

I’ve recently started getting back into selling on WhatNot. WhatNot is a streaming site where you sell items live. One thing that I’ve noticed is that people no longer know how to communicate with the most basic human decency. For instance, if they don’t like a price, instead of simply moving on, they tell you very rude things in the chat. If they ask to see something, and you show them, and they aren’t interested in anything, they simply leave the stream instead of simply saying thank you and then moving on. It’s these simple little things that used to just be common and basic communication. Why do these things matter? Because how you treat people, whether in person or online, matters. It tells the world the kind of person you are.

How you treat others directly defines who you are. If you are someone who feels you don’t need to treat people with basic respect, that becomes like a spark that can cause an internal fire. Your mouth is a great way to test your heart. What you say to people, or even in private, comes directly from your heart. Therefore, if you are quick to anger, that’s going to show up in how you communicate with others. If you are an ungrateful person, that’s going to show up in how you communicate with others. Our words, almost always, go before our actions. They’re not just empty phrases, or meaningless letters put together in a sentence. No, they hold weight. They matter.

Jesus went as far as to say that not only do our words have the power to corrupt us, but they are so important that we will be judged based on what we say.

36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.

Matthew 12:36-37

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Watch What You Say.

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Look For The Connections

5 By awesome deeds You answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas; 6 the one who by His strength established the mountains, being girded with might; 7 who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples, 8 so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs. You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy. ~ Psalms 65:5-8

A lot of people read the Bible and find it extremely boring. They find it to be a difficult read, but I find it extremely interesting. Why? Because there are so many different connections and subtle quotes, references, etc., that each and every time you read it, you see something new that you never saw before. For instance, I was reading the book of Psalms for the hundredth time, and when I read this verse, I immediately went “Wait a second!”

See, this is a song of David declaring who the LORD is. The God of our Salvation. Our Savior. When the LORD Jesus was on this earth, He didn’t come declaring, “I am God.” No. Instead, He let His works testify for Him.

23 And when He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. 24 And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but He was asleep. 25 And they went and woke Him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” 26 And He said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then He rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. 27 And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey Him?”

Matthew 8:23-27

See, this wasn’t just Jesus doing any ol’ sign. This was Jesus making a point of who He is. He’s not just another prophet. He’s not just another teacher. Not just another Rabbi. Not just another good man. He is the LORD of the Universe. The God of our Salvation.

See, talk is cheap. Talk isn’t what Jesus came for. He came to establish and build His Kingdom. And His Kingdom is not one of talk, but of power (1 Corinthians 4:19-20). Therefore, He led by example. He, the forerunner of faith (Hebrews 6:19-20), led the way by showing who He is. He didn’t say, “I am God,” and then act otherwise. No, He let His actions speak for themselves.

Today, the Church is quite the opposite. We go around saying we are Christians, but rarely do we act like it. A lot of the time, we look more like the world than the world does. We spew hatred instead of correcting in love. We mock those who disagree with us and speak all manner of evil against anyone who just annoys us. We no longer follow the way of the LORD. Instead, we’ve paved our own path that seems right but leads to death. It’s time we allow our actions to speak for us once again.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Look For The Connections.

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Prepare To Shed

Revelation 2:1-7

[1]  To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. [2]  I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. [3] I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. [4] But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. [5] Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. [6] Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. [7] He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’

There’s a fisherman I often watch videos of who explained that lobsters are biologically immortal. Once they get a certain size, they don’t have anymore predators. The only thing that can kill them is shedding. Once they reach a certain age, they no longer have any energy to shed. So, they’ll get stuck in their shell and they’ll end up starving to death. It made me think of Christians.

When we’ve been in church our entire lives, we often take it for granted. We don’t necessarily give into sin. We do our best to keep the commands of God, but we end up spiritually dying anyway. Why? We lose the love we had at first. Our love runs cold. Our love for God.

The passion we once had to search the Scriptures, learn new things, and grow in the Spirit slowly dies as time goes on. We become so complacent in our faith that we die to Christ, instead of living to Him. We’ve become that lobster. We’ve run out of energy to just keep going because we’ve stopped feeding our spirit. We stopped feeding our relationship with Christ.

Fasting, praying, worshipping, praising, reading and studying our bibles just come to a stop. And often times, it’s gradually, so we don’t even realize it’s happening. We become numb to it. Then we just lie down and starve to death. Our relationship with Christ just dwindles and He let’s us go.

It’s something that happens often in the Church, and the only way to avoid this fate, is to build up your spiritman. That is your source of life. Your relationship with Christ. The Father. The Spirit. It all depends on you reading and studying your Bible, praying, worshipping, fasting, and praising. It’s all about your quiet time. How you spend time with God matters.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Prepare To Shed.

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Fight For Your Victory

12 For every man threw down his rod, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods. ~ Exodus 7:12 (NKJV)

Imagine the feeling of despair when Aaron and Moses saw Pharaoh’s magicians throw down their rods, and they were turned to serpents as well. I’m sure they felt fear, disappointment, and discouragement. But it didn’t stop there. That wasn’t the end of the story. Why? Because what looked like defeat. What looked like equality. Was quickly swallowed up! So, in the same way… Just like what happened there… Our God will swallow up every demonic counterfeit… And every demonic competition the enemy brings against us will get swallowed up.

Because these are the times when our God will show up and show out, and let the powers of darkness see and understand their inferiority—there’s no God like our God. We hear it all around us… The sound of the enemy encamping in our territory… coming in like sand upon the seashore because it’s harvest time… but nonetheless… God will grant us victory and our enemy defeat.

Because… when they come at us from one direction, they will flee from us in seven directions (Deuteronomy 28:7). A thousand may fall at our side, ten thousand at our right hand, but no plague, no mortal spiritual danger, will come near us! (Psalms 91:7, 11). We must let our mustard seed of faith, which should already be blooming and bearing fruit… burst out upon the enemy in glorious victory. Listen! The serpent of our God will eat up any and all serpents of the enemy. Whatever he does… whatever he mimics… will get eaten up!

You just have to have enough faith to keep going. To stand firm. To not accept defeat. The LORD will do the rest. He will fight for you. Through you. In you. You just have to show up in faith and refuse to stop. Refuse to quit.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Fight For Your Victory.

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Return With Love

Matthew 5:44-48 ESV

[44] But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, [45] so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. [46] For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? [47] And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? [48] You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

I recently came across a short of a woman insulting the Church, right after playing a video with the caption “First time at a Mega Church Baptism.” The video showed a large pool with a huge crowd watching and performers around the pool. Now, if you actually pay attention to the video, you’ll see this isn’t a baptism or even a church at all. Or even on land for that matter. It’s a cruise ship. A Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship. It’s the Aquadome where they have water performances.

She made comments with other Christ haters about how the Church should be taxed. And how it took her three days to find words. Now, when people pointed out it’s not a church, but it’s one of Royal Caribbean cruise ships, it was just silence. No response. No acknowledgement. Nothing.

Imagine hating someone that you don’t believe even exists so much that you hate the people who do believe. Hate them so much so that you’d go as far as to lie on them for absolutely no reason and feed your 77k followers the lies, as you instigate. That to me is just crazy. Imagine making your entire personality about how you don’t believe someone or something doesn’t actually exist. That right there isn’t unbelief. That is called hatred.

Hatred is something that will consume you from the inside out. It’ll make you lie in order to get others to hate as well. It will blind you from any and everything that could possibly show you the error of your ways. It’s a stronghold that is only able to be broken through one and one alone, Jesus.

When I first saw the video, I’ll be honest my Great-Great Grandmother wanted to come out in me and I immediately thought, “Keep that same energy when you gotta stand before the LORD God Himself on Judgment Day.” That isn’t a Christian response though. It’s just responding to hatred with hatred. Which is easy. It’s what the flesh wants to do. But it’s not what we are called to do. We are called to do more than that.

We’re called to return hatred with love. Evil with good. Curses with blessings. It’s not an easy call. It goes against everything we are. The only way we can do it, is through Christ. We have to be filled with His love. Therefore, cast down every thought and hold them captive to obey Christ because we are called to be more.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Return With Love.

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Pay Attention To The Little Things

Matthew 5:23-24

23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Interesting how our brains tend to focus on the little things in life. The little things that people say or do to/for us. It’s those moments that tend to really stick with us. That shape is. Yes, big things impact us, a lot, but for some reason the little things really seem to stick with us even more.

I think maybe because it’s the regular, everyday little things that make us who we are. That shape our relationships. Define our personalities. It’s not the big extravagant things that happen every single day, but the little things that seems to be build up and make more of an impression in our minds and memories.

Jesus said something profound, if your brother has something against you leave your offering at the altar and go and make it right with him before you give your offering. An offering is something big. It’s something that cost you something. But that offense, could be a small thing. A little thing, that caused big damage to someone else.

Our day to day lives should be lived with just as much care as when we’re planning something extraordinary. Our regular day to day interactions with people, what we say, do, and how we treat each other, should be done with love. We should always walk in love because those little moments, usually turn out to be the big ones.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Pay Attention To The Little Things.

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Help Someone In The Rain

1 Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. ~ Matthew 7:1-5

I recently saw a video that said:

“We don’t experience the same rain. Some have umbrellas, some have roofs, and some only have themselves. That’s why we should be kinder, slower to judge, and quicker to understand. You’ll never know how heavy someone’s rain is until you’ve stood where they are.”

Each one of our walks in this life is different. We have different obstacles, giants, valleys, and hills. Some of us have it easier, and some have it harder. This world isn’t fair. It throws everything it can at anyone it can. Some have other people that they can depend on, while others only have themselves. We don’t always know the walk someone has had before we judge them. Before we decide whether or not they are doing everything they can to keep going.

Often, the judgment call we make is much harsher than it would be if we were judging ourselves. We, as humanity, tend to judge others much harsher than we judge ourselves. Holding others to a higher standard than we hold ourselves. Why? Because it’s always easier to make a judgment call from the outside looking in. It’s easier to say what one should or shouldn’t do when it’s not you who has to do or not do it.

Therefore, God tells us to judge carefully. He warns us to first examine ourselves. He warns us that the same level of judgment we use to judge others will be the same level we will be judged with. Yes, as Christians, we are to judge right and wrong. We’re to call out sin. But we’re to do so in love. Jesus didn’t call out sin that the sinner was already aware of. When they came to Him and knelt at His feet, the sin was left there. No more talk of it. He didn’t turn anyone away from Him, regardless of how great the sin was. How can we do any less?

We need to be the salt of the earth, yes, but also the light of the world. Showing the love of Christ to others. Taking time out of our day to be a shoulder to cry on, a hand to hold, an encourager; to be Christ to the world in need. The rain around us will never be the same. Some will have it harder than others, but how we treat others in the rain can make all the difference. It can change a life.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Help Someone In The Rain.

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