Tues Devo: Be ready

Matthew 28:19-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (NASB)

1 Peter 3:15 “but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; ” (NASB)

Hello,

You never know when the next question or conversation is going to come from – or go to! Sometimes the conversation is overtly spiritual – sometimes it simply opens the door for you to take that direction. We have been instructed to share our faith and the hope of Jesus as we are going about our business. We have been instructed to be ready to give a defense for our faith as well. Notice that one of these commands is proactive, and the other reactive – that really is quite encompassing! Also, notice that in both passages it is accompanied by instructions around our behavior (there are additional verses past 15 in 1 Peter 3 that go there even more). True, behavior is not what saves – but it is a reflection of our beliefs being real to us, it is an act of obedience and love, and it pays some dividends in heaven as well.

So, be ready! Be proactively sharing, and be ready to explain to those who question you as well. (hint here – daily reading, regular prayer and periodically revisiting ‘the basics’ should help all of us!)

Have a blessed day,

Will Hill

Holy Week

John 12:13

They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,

“Hosanna!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Blessed is the king of Israel!”

As we come up to the start of Holy Week, I’m reminded of why Easter is my favorite holiday.   When you think of a holiday filled with gifts, you think about Christmas.  However, I believe that Easter is the most giving holiday of them all.  Holy Week has the very darkest of times and yet the brightest of times, all in a matter of a few days.  We start out with Jesus coming into Jerusalem, where everyone is bowing down before him. 

This man, born of a virgin, in a stable.  This man, walked this earth, taught in the synagogue.  This man, a simple man, yet a king.  This man, came to earth with the purpose of dying, dying for you and for me. 

Easter is the most giving holiday I could imagine as Christ went to the cross for MY sins.  Yet the story doesn’t end there.  He fulfilled the promise that three days later he would raise. 

This next week as we start with celebrate Palm Sunday, reflect upon Maundy Thursday, and mourn Christ death on Good Friday, remember that it isn’t finished!  Easter Sunday is coming and the promise that he will return gives us a reason to celebrate every day.

Thurs Devo: Evil Celebrated

Last week we saw how the two witnesses will be successful in God’s eyes for finishing the work God gives them to do. However, the world will hate them for it and the beast will kill them. That would be bad enough, but look what happens next.

Revelation 11:7-10    ⁷ Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. ⁸ Their bodies will lie in the public square of the great city—which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt—where also their Lord was crucified. ⁹ For three and a half days some from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial.¹⁰ The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.

Evil is celebrated as righteousness is detested. We see this happen today. God’s ways, His standards, and His people are hated, while all kinds of wickedness is supported, legalized, and celebrated. The Apostle Paul also warned us that this would happen.

Romans 1:28-32         ²⁸ Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.²⁹ They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; ³¹ they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.³² Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.


We shouldn’t be surprised when evil is celebrated. However, we aren’t to join in, condone, or quietly stand-by. How can we ensure we don’t also celebrate evil? We need to “retain the knowledge of God” as verse 28 says. We do that by having a growing personal relationship with our Creator. As we continue to learn and understand His attributes and character by reading and studying His entire Word, we won’t be deceived by the evil around us. As Kent talked about yesterday, we can’t do that by reading the Cliff’s Notes version of the Bible.

Alice

Paul's Notes Are Greater!

Always be joyful.  Never stop praying.  Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.  1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

When I was in high school, we would have lots of books to read for our English classes.  Most common were works by Shakespeare.  No one liked Shakespeare because it was both difficult to read and in many cases boring.  Then when reading Hamlet (one of those difficult Shakespeare works), one of the students came in with this cute yellow book called ‘Cliff’s Notes,’ which gave a summary of the book.  Like many others, I was fascinated by it, and took a quick read through it.  I wish I could say it helped me do well on the exam, but it did not.  I still had to read the book to do well, but it did give me great insight as to what the author was trying to impress upon his audience.  Now having read the Bible, I have no desire to read the Cliff Notes of it because like Hamlet, I do not get the full breadth of what God is trying to say.  However in reading the Bible, I often get a nice little summary of how one is to live for God much like those notes did for Hamlet.

Learning to spend time reading the Bible is essential in helping one live a Christ centered life.  In reading the closing chapter of Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, one gets so much wisdom about how to live for God.  The verses for today jumped out at me about things that we should aspire to do every day.  There are three operative words we should focus on; always, never, and all.  First, we should always be joyful.  Joyful is what we aspire to be over happy for happiness can be fleeting but joyfulness stays even when circumstances may warrant time for sadness or mourning.  Never stop praying.  In case you have not been prayerful, let me just say what prayer has done in my life.  It has helped me love my family better and saved me from harm way more times than I can count.  The more we pray, the more God shows us.  Be thankful in all circumstances.  Yes, it is fairly easy to be thankful when times are good, but what about when things are not so good?  We are at times disappointed with what life throws our way, but God uses these experiences in many ways.  Sometimes it is to help us learn something, and other times it is because better and greater things await us.

There is so much God wants to say to us.  In understanding that, it becomes easy to know why the Bible is so long!  Even then, it speaks far beyond its words for if we not only read it but also truly study it, we hear God speaking to our hearts as well as our minds.  Even if you only have a moment I urge you to still take time to read a little for God will take that short moment and change your path toward a more life fulfilling journey.  It helped me, and it can do the same for you.  When is the last time you opened your Bible or digital Bible app?  How can you commit to reading His word more often?  My prayer is that we find just a little more time to read and study God’s word for Cliff’s notes are great but as we read today, Paul’s notes are greater!  Amen.

Tues Devo: In your control

Philippians 4:4-8 “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near.  Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” (NASB)

Hello,

So it is that time of year……the NCAA tournament! There are always those team who are left out. You hear the experts talk about what they did or what another team didn’t do – and then you hear it subtly tossed in “They did everything but win their conference tournament, what more could you ask?” Well, I guess we could ask them to win their conference tournament! The harsh reality is that there was 1 way each team could have been sure to get invited – win their conference tournament.

In our lives there are many things out of our control. To see the opportunities in front of us the awareness and understanding of what is in and out of our control is critical for our success. The next thing to do is to then act on the things in our control. The biggest things to me that we are in control of is how we choose to spend our time and with what attitude.  Are we choosing to spend time with God in prayer and reading? Are we choosing to invest our time in relationships with people? Are we choosing to spend our conversation time encouraging others and sharing the gospel? What is our attitude as we spend our time doing these things?

I think both of these things – time and attitude are covered in Philippians. I challenge all of us to look at what is in our control, and execute the game plan well!

Have a blessed day,

Will Hill

RLD Week 4: Three Keys to Making Disciples

19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”  Matthew 4

The three keys to making disciples are Intentional Leadership, Relationship Driven, and Reproducible Processes.

Think about the first item: Intentional Leadership.  You have to put yourself out there to make other disciples.  A fisherman does not stay at home and hope for the fish to come to them, they go to the lakes and streams to catch the fish.  Sometimes, we have to go somewhere to find those "fish."  We have to make the effort to go to them.  It may be new people or it may be those already around you.  Sitting back and hoping that someone will fall into your lap to disciple won't work, you have to be intentional about finding people to disciple.  

Being relationship driven is to have the "line" to catch the fish.  You've gotten the intentional leadership down, and you're standing in the stream, but now you need to build a relationship.  You need to be accountable to one another, and you need to be honest with those that you are discipling.  That relationship will draw each of you closer together over time, and closer to God as well.  One of the verses read at my wedding years ago was Matthew 18:20, "Where two or more are gathered, I am with them."  The meaning there was that now my husband and I were two, permanently, and God would always have a place in our marriage.  I'm happy to say that he does.    

Finally, the reproducible process is your ability to pull those fish in.  This was the concept that took the longest for me to understand, so I'll do my best at describing it here.  Each fish is at a different spiritual growth stage, and has different needs to become a disciple.  There's no one-size-fits-all approach to discipling, but you need to be aware of the best way to "feed" someone at each stage of growth.  The same conversation with someone who is spiritually dead wouldn't necessarily apply to someone later in their faith.  The point here is to go back and learn more about the spiritual growth stages, and understand the questions people wrestle with in certain stages, as well as understand the motivations.  While each person will require a unique approach, you can still use a similar foundation for people in each stage of their journey.  

Are your relationships quality?

I apologize for getting this out late. I have the day off and forgot to post before leaving for a MOPS meeting.



Philippians 4:10-14

I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles.

I heard a devotion around this scripture this morning that really spoke to me. The devotion talked about how we need to be vulnerable in order to really connect with others. It was recently said that I don’t do so well with developing quality relationships with others. This had me start to think because I feel that those people that I’m close to are very quality relationship. It also let me to admit that that number is few. I tend to have a lot of acquaintances yet not too many really quality relationships. 

Putting together what I had been told and this scripture, I really started thinking about how I do need to become more vulnerable in order to build more quality relationships. I need to be willing to open myself to others so they feel more comfortable opening themselves to me as well.


Is there someone that is longing for you to share in their troubles and you’ve not built a quality relationship with them because you don’t want to be vulnerable? How about your relationship with God? Have you made yourself vulnerable to God, admitting where you are weak? He wants to share in your troubles as well.

Thurs Devo: What's Success?

How do you define success? Who’s standard do you use? Your bosses, your peers, your family and friends, or your own? It’s so hard not to view success by the standards of others.

What about when it comes to sharing the truths of God with others? Do you and I gauge our effectiveness or success by the response of others? I think I often do. After a conversation, I will try and think of what I failed to say or mention that might have helped the other person respond differently. It’s not bad to self evaluate so that I can learn from my experiences, but God’s the ultimate judge of success. He doesn’t rate success by the responses we get or the outcome, but by our obedience to Him.

Look at the example of the two witnesses that will prophesy at the end of time:

Revelation 11:3-7     ³ And I will appoint my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” ⁴ They are “the two olive trees” and the two lampstands, and “they stand before the Lord of the earth.” ⁵ If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die. ⁶ They have power to shut up the heavens so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want.

⁷ Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them.

Death doesn’t seem like a result of success but of failure! The witnesses certainly won’t convince the beast or many of earth’s inhabitants to turn to God. Even with all the power God gives them, people will choose not to believe. Their success in God’s eyes isn’t measured by the response of others, but by their faithfulness to speak the truth. They “finished their testimony” as verse 7 says and completed the job God gave them to do.

Do you and I feel like failures when it comes to influencing others for Christ? How can you and I remember that obedience is success and not the response to our obedience (or outcome), just like with the two witnesses?

Alice

Confidently And Fearlessly Forward!

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Colossians 3:1-4

I am going to open up and be vulnerable here.  There are many things I am fearful of.  These fears have at times entered not only my mind but also my heart.  Sometimes, I am afraid for my children and how the world tries to crush their spirit.  I fear going places because of exterior threats such as acts of violence.  In my lifetime, my fears have included never having a significant other to love me.  As I approach a new milestone in my life, I worry if my life has made a difference, and though my family has plenty, I will fear losing it all in some fashion or another.  They have consumed me and made me at times want to hide in my own bedroom and close the door to the world.  Some of you may have felt any combination of those fears at some point of your life.  Yet looking back when all of those fears were at their heightened state, I still walked out of my bedroom and house into that very world that tells me to run and retreat.  Why?  Why would any of us want to venture into this world that pushes us into these feelings of insecurity?

We do this because we have been born again through Jesus Christ and are thus of God’s Kingdom.  Not of this world.  Through Christ, we find bravery and courage to move forward into a world that tells us we are not good enough.  The distractions that are of this world are made to create a barrier between ourselves and God.  Thus it is easy to understand that as we focus on the world around us, we struggle to see our own goodness and worthiness.  Through a worldly lens, we see others as who we are not, and focus on what we do not have instead of that God has provided.  If we are focused on God with both our minds and hearts, we immediately see our infinite value as His child.  Others become those you can share God’s light with and what we have is seen as what we are blessed with instead of craving that which we do not have.

We are incredibly blessed to be loved by the one true living God!  Knowing this, we can be open about our fears and uncertainties of the world because we are not of it.  We simply overcome them focusing on who we are (God’s child) and what we are certain of; that God loves us so much that He gave His one and only son so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).  Do not let this world convince you otherwise.  You may not see yourself of deserving of God’s grace, but none of us are.  You are indeed worthy because through Jesus Christ, you are born again!  What fears and worries are hindering your connection with God?  How can you move forward knowing you are His child?  My prayer is when confronted with worldly insecurities, we affix our hearts and minds on Jesus Christ, and move confidently and fearlessly forward!  Amen.    

Tues Devo :One choice is two choices

Romans 6:1-4 “What shall we say then? Are we continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?  Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” (NASB)

Hello,

Have you noticed how non-committal we have become? When we do agree to a choice, we carefully look for the out – or for the exceptions we can make. You ever notice in the Bible that isn’t the case? A choice is not just a single choice – it is 2 choices. It is the choice to do, but also the choice of what not to do.

We don’t like to talk about choices in such absolutes – we want the wiggle room.

The choice with Jesus is too important to ignore the fact there is not room to look for the out. I am not saying we will be perfect – trust me, I fail! But – we are not to approach our relationship with Jesus with one eye looking fo the exit clause. We must dive in and realize that the choice towards Him is also a choice away from other things.

Have a blessed day,

Will Hill