A Warning

Romans 15:7

Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, I want to caution you as it is so easy for people to misunderstand the Bible and use scripture to go against what God has intended.  The verse above is one that often gets misused.  We hear it said that we should accept everyone, despite their life style choices.  This can be very dangerous!  The Bible is very clear about certain topics and while we are to love everyone, we are not told to be accepting of their choices. 

When you love everyone and accept them as Christ accepted us, you are praising God.  We do want to show them Christ and show them how Christ died for each and every one of us.  We have all been called to live a life that pleases God.

I just want to encourage each of you today to keep your eyes on the cross as there are many around us that will try to use our faith to actually break us down.  

Thursday Devotional - "Just Because" Miracles

Last Tuesday night we had 52 new women come and register for the Bible study I help lead! It was a good problem to have, but meant several of us stayed late that night to prayerfully figure out in which of our 16 groups to place each woman. So, I didn’t get home until late that night and then forgot to set my alarm for the next morning. However, God woke me up at 5:50 am!

I rarely wake up before my alarm, so I kept thanking God for waking me up! He didn’t need to do that. I didn’t have an early morning meeting. I think my boss would have understood, as I’m not a tardy employee and I’m conscientious about my work. God waking me up seemed like a “just because” miracle simply to remind me who He is, He’s always there, He loves me and He even cares about the little details in my life!

I think this next miracle in the book of John might have been one of those “just because” miracles for the disciples, too.

John 21:1-6  Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: ² Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. ³ “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. ⁴ Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. ⁵ He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” “No,” they answered. ⁶ He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.

It doesn’t sound like the disciples “needed” to catch fish, but Jesus miraculously gave them more than they could even haul just to remind them who He is! He is the all-powerful, all-knowing Son of God that rose from the dead to offer us freedom from sin! Yet, He’s also personal, compassionate and caring in our day-to-day activities.

What “just because” miracles has God done in your life to remind you of His power and presence?

Alice 

The Dumb Question

“It’s true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives. They preach because they love me, for they know I have been appointed to defend the Good News. Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. But that doesn’t matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice.”  Philippians 1:15-18 NLT

One of the favorite things that I do in discussions (if your name is Loretta, my wife, call it an argument ☺), is what I call the ‘Kent dumb’ question.  These are questions that usually do one of two things.  One is to blatantly point out the obvious, which usually ends the discussion.  The other is when I feel there is something obvious that I am just plain missing.  For example when my daughter claims not to know where the missing cupcake is, the Kent dumb question is, “Mya, why is the cupcake wrapper in your bedroom?”  However, there are times where that so called ‘dumb’ question becomes a great one.  It’s great because often it is the dumb question that reveals something in a plan that no one has thought of.  These are important because it often is the difference between a great plan and a plan that sinks because no one ever asked that question.

It brought me to the very obvious question that we as Christians often wonder.  Am I doing what God asks of me?  When I make a stance on something, is it because it’s what God wants or what I want?  You see, these seem like dumb questions, but they are smart especially when we are not balanced in our approach to them.  Sometimes I allow my heart rule over me too much, and end up not doing what God wants me to do.  Other times, I let my literal sense lead because that’s what God’s law says, but in those cases, I am not as loving of others as God is as loving of me.  As a comedian once said about being a father, “We are dumb, but we are not so dumb.”

It is important that we always check our motives to ensure they are God driven.  God’s law is perfect, and so is His love for us.  But what if one conflicts with the other?  What do you say to the gay person who’s lost his loved one to AIDS?  Now I have not had to deal with this, but this is the dilemma.  How can I show God’s love without accepting or approving of the lifestyle?  You see for one side, it sounds simple.  God does not approve of the homosexual lifestyle, and as such, anything I do to uphold that is a sin.  Period.  That’s easy enough, right?  That’s exactly what happened in the South when they said slavery was acceptable (Note: They used scripture to prove that God approved of it because it wrote it explicitly God’s acceptance of it – see Exodus 20:10, 17 as prime examples).  The fact I bring this up does not mean I condone homosexuality.  It does mean that if we are not approaching it with God’s heart for the person, we are not following Christ for while He did love us for the person we would become, He also loved us right where we were.  I’m merely trying to point out we must truly understand our motives prior to saying one is right or wrong.

God wants all of us.  Mind, heart, and soul.  These will take us to places where we will feel very uncomfortable.  It will make us think when our hearts have led us astray, and soften our heart when our heads are stubborn.  Our goal is to love God and His word, and ask prayerfully for guidance.  So let us not be too simplistic in our approach to situations.  Let us always be willing to make God’s word truly living!  My prayer is that before we jump to the seemingly obvious answer, we pause to check our motives and ask The Dumb Question.’  Amen.

Tues Devo: Bend, but don't break

1 Peter 1:13 “Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (NASB)

Hello,

I was watching some football this weekend (not a surprise) and saw a couple team change up their defensive strategy in the 2^nd half when leading. They backed off being aggressive and just kept stuff in front of them. They were trying to avoid ‘the big mistake’. While they did that, the offense changed up and just took chunks of yards available to them and would move down the field with little resistance. This ‘bend, but don’t break’ style of defense is maybe a little effective – but often ends up putting you in a position at the last minute with the opponent about to score that you have to change styles and suddenly get aggressive again – and sometimes momentum has already swung, making that very difficult.

We can’t get this way spiritually. We can just be passively bend but don’t break – we will lose ground and before you know it be found in a tight spot. We must always be action ready!

Not too late – change it up and be action ready today!

Will Hill