Devotion Talk 11/24/07

Tonight I read Luke 16.

I like Luke 16 for many reasons. I enjoy both of the stories. Each has a very important message.

The Parable of The Shrewd Manager: This story is an amazing story. It really goes to show you that if you yearn for something other than God, such as money, then you will be punished. The manager in the story used all his posdessions without being thrifty. He believed that he could cheat his way to the top. But, soon he was proved wrong. Although the punishment of getting half of your goods getting taken away is nothing compared to God’s wrath, it is a punishment. The greatest verse in the chapter I think is this, we cannot serve ourselves and God at the same time:

“13‘No servant can serve two masters. 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 both God and Money.’ “

The Rich Man and Lazarus: Two main points:

• Those who live a good life without God go to hell, and those who live a hard one with God, go to heaven.
• More importantly, I feel is the fact that God knows that we do not need a special person to come back from the dead to show his glory. We just have to look around and see God’s world. We do not even need Moses or the prophets. We should be able to look around and see the glorious world God created and believe!

“31‘He said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” ‘ “

Devotion Talk 11/19/07

Tonight I read Luke 15.

This is a shorter chapter, but the message is a great one. It makes me recompense to last summer at The Gap Camp. The Gap was all about God being so holy that the “gap” between him and us are incomprehensible, huge, gigantic! But, the most amazing thing, the biggest message, that my Pastor whispered in my ear the last night: God loves us. Not just that he loves us all in general, but he loves each in every one of us and each and every one of our thoughts, features, and personality. This universe is immense, but he loves me as much as he loves you. This holy being doesn’t have to love us. In fact, after Adam and Eve sinned, he could have left us to die, and we could have been left to live in agony. Just like the missing son, God loves us all when we find our way back home. Just like the sheperd, he loves each lamb and is grateful when he returns or is found. Just like the coin, when it is found rejoicing is much, but when we find God, there is even more.

“4‘Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, “Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.” ‘ “

He is Our King

Do you know him?

I got this from Pushing back…
Great video.

Devotion Talk 11/18/07

Here is the Luke 12 re-do.

Tonight I read Luke 12.

Warnings And Encouragements: I could have made this just warnings, but I just realized, that there is encouragement in the verse I wanted to highlight, as well. First I think the most important verse in this section is this:

“4‘I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. 5But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.’ “

This means that we should fear God. God is so powerful that even if we have led perfect lives, (which we can’t) like Jesus did, he has the power to throw us into hell anyway. He is that powerful. The encouragement is that, what do we have to worry? We only have to fear him. Compared to God, Satan is nothing! Why fear him?

The Parable of The Rich Fool/ Do Not Worry: The parable of the Rich Fool really indicates the message of God’s providing. He is our provider. Why store things up and make sure we have enough money, or food or anything of that sense. God will provide for us here on Earth and in heaven. God “feeds” the “ravens.” He lets the “flowers grow.” He will do it for us as well.

Watchfulness:

“35‘Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night.’ “

We should be ready for Jesus to return. We should always be ready to die. We cannot live our lives in disarray. What if God takes us right then and there. We die and go to Hell. We always have to be thinking and loving God. We need to be faithful to him. If our master returns and we aren’t ready, well, punishment comes.

Oops.

The connection on my computer decided to go blank before I got a chance to publish Devotion Talk 11/15/07. I’ll re-do it and get it up tomorrow.

Devotion Talk 11/14/07

Tonight I read Luke 10.

I really enjoyed reading this chapter. I am going to highlight the tree key points, or the ones that I believe are key.

Jesus Sends Out The Seventy-two: This part is, I believe is one of the most significant in the chapter. The fourth verse, I feel is vital to Christian faith sharing:

“Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.”

Why do I say this? I believe that if we go and proclaim to the world that we are Christian, and that we want to help people change, what are they going to think of us? They will think that we are over-proud people that are doing this for our own, not God’s glory. I reflect back to last night about pride. The only thing we have to be proud about is God, yes, but we can’t be over proud. That is wrong too. We have to have a quiet pride: a pride inside us that shows, but not immensely. If we proclaim to the world that we are Christians, that shows that we want glory. We need to share faith quietly, little by little. Correct people at little moments in time like saying: “That’s wrong” or “That’s not Godly.” Then they start asking questions, you answer and in no time you help them become a Christian.

The Parable of The Good Samaritan: This parable illustrates another thing we should do. We shouldn’t wait for somebody to come to us. When we see someone struggling, we go to them. We don’t walk by and ignore them. Like the Good Samaritan, we should stop, help bandage up the wounds, care for them and be a good neighbor:

“36‘Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?’

37The expert in the law replied, ‘The one who had mercy on him.’
Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise.’ “

At the Home of Martha and Mary: What is most important? Preparing for a meal or listening to your Lord speak and bow down at his feet. Jesus is the highest of the high. Cooking dinner is much less important than worshiping our Lord God Almighty.

” 42′…but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.’ “

Devotion Talk 11/13/07: To Be Like Jesus

To Be Like Jesus

Tonight I read Luke 2.

This is the story of the birth of Jesus. I find another thing like last night that Mary listened to Gabriel and named the child Jesus, our Savior.

Though, I named this Devotion Talk: To Be Like Jesus. What is a Christian’s goal I ask you? To go to heaven, right? How do we do that? Become more like Jesus and accept him as our Savior. Along the way, we learn the different traits of God and Jesus. For example, in my Church, a Sunday School class is named Jesus: A-Z. The class, for second and third graders has about 40 different characteristics of Jesus hanging on the wall, at least one for each letter. This unit is great. The kids go through and learn A for amazing or something of the sort. One I really love is P for pride. The lesson, which I have listened to as I helped teach it tells that God was proud of his creation. It later explains that God is the only one that can really be proud. We “will not boast in anything… but I will boast in Jesus Christ.” (How Deep the Father’s Love For Us) We have one thing we can be proud about and that is the fact that we have Jesus and a merciful, compassionate God.

Jesus never really boasted or seemed to show pride except when he proclaimed that God was his father. That is it. Nothing more did he boast about, nothing less. Today, I found out that I got a lead role in the play. Obviously I felt like bursting and screaming to the entire school that I got the part, but that is nothing to brag or boast about. I can boast, we can boast, however, that we have Jesus in our hearts and that he died in our hearts and that he loves us!

“I will not boast in Anything,
no gifts, no power, no wisdom.
But, I will boast in Jesus Christ,
his blood has paid my ransom.”

-How Deep The Father’s Love For Us

Devotion Talk 11/12/07

Tonight I read Luke 1.

Luke 1 is the foretelling of the birth of John the Baptist and Jesus, and the birth of John. The thing that really amazes me the most is Zechariah in this chapter. Despite everyone around him expecting and telling him to name the baby Zechariah, he chose to tell them all on a tablet that: “His name is John.” I love this mans love for the lord and how he obeys. Even if he wasn’t mute for that time, I am sure that the name would have been John. Imagine if we all loved God that much. It would be a perfect world. That brings up another point as to why sin became. Sin became so there could be a heaven. If everyone was perfect, we would need no savior, no heaven, no God. I am so happy that Adam and Eve committed a sin. We now live with cruelty, hate and suffering, but if there was no sin in Eden, we would be alone, humans, with no God. What is the point of a point of having a God in a perfect world? Thank God for sin, but we can still make a difference by spreading God’s word and showing others that he loves them.

“63He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s astonishment he wrote, ‘His name is John.’ “

Pray for me please

I had a difficult time remembering to post over vacation. Please pray that my mind will focus in more on God. Pray that the many distractions of life will pull off of me.

Vacation

I am going on vacation the entire next week. I will try to get to a computer to update the blog each night, but don’t be surprised if you don’t see anything on here from the 2nd to the 11th.