Flag Football 2012
People With Conviction
Luke 16:13
“No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
My favorite line in The Avengers was when Loki (the bad guy) was told: “You lack conviction”. “You will lose because it is in your nature”.
Anytime we lack total conviction we will fail and if we rely on our own strength we are guaranteed failure. Our nature is to fail. Only Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for you and I gives us victory and the ability to serve Him with conviction. Therefore, the questions are:
Are you and I true children of God?
Have we repented of our sins, turned from them, and gave Christ total control of our lives?
Do you and I lack conviction? Do we stand up for Him in a world lacking conviction?
A Story To Tell:
We all as Christians have a story to tell. May we never forget that it is not our story we tell others but it is His Story we relay to all. Sometimes we make things too difficult. Our focus should be to read His Word and pray daily then look for opportunities to share what He spoke that day.
Psalm 71:15-18
15 I will tell everyone about your righteousness.
All day long I will proclaim your saving power,
though I am not skilled with words.
16 I will praise your mighty deeds, O Sovereign Lord.
I will tell everyone that you alone are just.
17 O God, you have taught me from my earliest childhood,
and I constantly tell others about the wonderful things you do.
18 Now that I am old and gray,
do not abandon me, O God.
Let me proclaim your power to this new generation,
your mighty miracles to all who come after me.
“Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
Acts 17:30-31
Revival!
I long for the day when we as Christians study God’s Word more than we study written commentaries, men’s sermons, and fellow Christians’ conversations. It seems that every spiritual conversation I am involved in a person is quoted or a cliche’ is regurgitated. Why don’t we quote HIS Word and not our fellow sinful man’s word. Do you think satan could be behind this?
STUDY GOD’s WORD not man’s! This is our only hope of revival.
Joshua 1:8 ”This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”
PRAISE GOD THIS MORNING!
PRAISE GOD!
Psalm 93:3-4
The floods have risen up, O Lord.
The floods have roared like thunder;
the floods have lifted their pounding waves.
But mightier than the violent raging of the seas,
mightier than the breakers on the shore
the Lord above is mightier than these!
Nothing that happens is beyond His control. No circumstance can say He wasn’t involved. He either caused it for our good or allowed it for the shaping of our lives! Sometimes I wish He would slow down the shaping process :) !
Read The WHOLE Word of God
17
Psalm 139:17-18
How precious are your thoughts about me,[b] O God.
They cannot be numbered!
18 I can’t even count them;
they outnumber the grains of sand!
And when I wake up,
you are still with me!
Unlike any other time, this day and age is full of unbalanced pastors and churchmen. Pastors like Rob Bell and Joel Olsteen escort their harmful doctrine into Christian homes across our land. They say a loving God could never judge anyone. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Calvinist showmen of our world say that God is sovereign and people do not matter. They say God chooses some for heaven and some for eternal damnation. The most pious people I know are Calvinist. Could it be that the person in the mirror they declare chosen is really doomed eternally? Does no one read the WHOLE Word? Does no one really care about Biblical context anymore?
Yes, God is sovereign! Yes, people are important to Him! Yes God is love! Yes, God is just!
I love this devotion by Greg Laurie -
THURSDAY, MAY 10, 2012
Changed Live
“The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus.”
—Acts 4:13
In the book of Acts, we find some amazing stories of genuine, obedient followers of Jesus Christ, real, live Christians. These were people who knew what it was to walk and talk with Jesus—people who, before they even spoke a single word, had that certain something about them, people who, because of their godly lifestyles, had in effect earned the right to preach the gospel because there was evidence in their lives. And it was said of them that they had been with Jesus.
Now that was not meant as a compliment, by the way. The statement wasn’t even made by Christians. It was made by the authorities who had observed these Christ-followers.
This reminds us that God can use ordinary people. I bring this up because I think sometimes we put the apostles on pedestals. We see them as one-dimensional characters. Yet the events of Acts took place over a 30-year period of time, so not every day had miracles. Not every day had visions. Not every day had supernatural phenomenon. The first-century believers just went about their business from day to day.
Every day as Christians, we are out and about, doing our thing. Are people able to tell that we have been with Jesus? Is there evidence to confirm it? Or, as has it been said, if you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? It doesn’t matter how many Bibles you own or how may Christian bumper stickers you have on your car. The evidence I am talking about are results in your life—a change of character.
This is what we see in the lives of the first-century Christians. They walked with God, and it showed in the way they lived.
The Alarm Is Sounding!!
Jonah 1:6b
“How can you sleep at a time like this?”
Just as on Jonah’s boat there are people in grave danger all around us everyday. The Church seems to be sleeping as pills are swallowed, Scripture is banned in public schools, pornography rages on, divorces are common, child abuse and slavery persists, and thefts increase. Can anyone say our society in not on a downward spiral? IT IS TIME FOR THE CHURCH TO AWAKE! The “alarm clock” is sounding and it is getting annoying! Let’s quit hitting the snooze button and turn to God with all our heart. Pray to God and speak truth in love. The Church needs a backbone!
HELPER Help!
Jonah 1:3
But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish.
May we never turn from God’s plan nor His direction in our lives. With the Holy Spirit’s help we can avoid the self-inflicted trials Jonah experienced. My prayer this morning for myself and my family is that even when things are tough, even when things don’t make sense, and even when every fiber in our bodies says NO because of our prejudices we allow the Holy Spirit to take control and help us overcome these feelings. The Holy Spirit will give His children strength when they are weak, wisdom when confusion arises, and courage to face our sinful hearts so that we can ask for forgiveness.
I thank God for the Helper!
