There was a young woman, in her early teens, who came to the U.S. with her family as immigrants. She had no biblical foundation and her family came to America to seek the land of Liberty and Hope to escape a foreign country under communist rule. As the family settled in the U.S., the young woman finished her high school education. A few years later she was ready to be independent and live on her own. The young woman moved to Houston, Texas where she found her first job. The young woman was raised that hard work brings profit. And a hard worker she was. She soon met a man at her job. They enjoyed each other’s company at work and started to develop feelings which culminated into a relationship. However, the man was living under the entanglement of sin. He had been married twice before and was still married to his second wife in which children from the previous marriages were in the picture as well. The man told his current girlfriend that he planned on leaving his wife to be with her. They then continued their relationship. Eventually the young woman got pregnant and had a son. The Father then decided that he was going to try and amend his current relationship with his wife. This left the young woman and her son out in the cold and feeling like the 3rd wheel. The young woman decided to do what she thought was best, she took her son and left Houston knowing the current environment would not be good to try and raise her son and to escape the pain of that relationship. Can you imagine the scars and pain of all parties involved in the situation? The young woman moves to Dallas, TX where she calls home now. She’s living in a suburb area doing well. She works 2 jobs to raise her son and to keep food on the table. Due to the harsh realities of economy and raising a child as a single mother, it’s tough for her to have quality time to pour into her son and also balance life with work and bills. Through the young boy's life from elementary school to his college years, the young man has witnessed several unhealthy relationships of men coming in and out of his mom’s life. None of the men exemplifying any biblical roots, showing uncommitted patterns, and objectify the son’s mother. Not only that, the young boy gets exposed to things such pornography, underage drinking, drugs, and what it means to be a womanizer. The young man just grows to lay in these pits of sin and models what he’s been exposed to up at this point in his life. He is seeking his identity in the world and what they are feeding him. If the young man keeps going at his current pace, he’ll be modeling the same sin struggle as his father. Like father, like son. Over the years the Lord has been trying to get a hold of this man’s heart but the young man has been ignoring it. Fast forward a few years later. The young man realizes he has a void inside. He’s tired of living the same pattern of emptiness, no identity, toxic relationships, and no purpose. Eventually the young man recognizes he’s in a pit and wants to surrender and trust his life to someone other than himself. He finds Jesus! The young man is devoted to seeking Him, knowing Him, and pursuing Him. The young man wants to know what it means to have a real relationship and to have an abundant life from God. God surrounds the young man in biblical community; puts people in his life to disciple him and teach him God’s Word. God shows the young man freedom through dependence on Him and strength that is derived from being on your knees in humility. The young man continues to grow in what God calls men to be in character: Step Up (Prov 14:23), Speak Out (Prov 27:5-6), Stand Firm (Gal 1:10), Stay Humble (John 15:5), and Serve the King (Mark 10:45). God is now tailoring this man to be like His Son, Jesus. Like Father, Like Son. Now the young man is in his early thirties. The young man gets curious about who his biological father is. The young man decides to search for him. Does the young man hire a private investigator or pay for some advanced web that offers leads to searching people….Nope! It’s called Facebook. The young man finds what looks to be his father on FB and sends him a message. The young man sends out the message with no intent of malice or seeking any sort of financial compensation. The father never responds and thinks to himself maybe he just reached the wrong person. The young man didn’t think much of it and moves on. A few months later, the young man received a message from someone else who shares the same last name. It turns out that person is a half brother of the young man and that their father did receive the message a few months earlier, but didn’t respond out of shame and guilt. Now communications starts to develop over the next few months and it turns out the young man is the youngest of 7. Four brothers and two sisters. The young man, after about a year finally gets to meet his dad. You would think it would be this real sentimental, both sides crying, and just overwhelming home coming of emotions. Their first meeting was more awkward and a lot of surface level conversations. Over the next course of a year or so, the young man starts to have more communication with his father and develops relationships with his siblings. Because the relationship with the father and son was not developing as the son had hoped, he began to hear the Accuser put thoughts into his head of “You’re father never cared”, “Ask him where’s been the first 30+ years of your life”, “Ask him about the pain he’s caused your mom”, or “Let him know your sinful patterns are modeled after him”. At this time, the young man is going through Re:Generation through Watermark Community Church which is a 12 biblical step recovery ministry to help process your hurts, habits, and hang-ups. Little did the young man know that Step 8 of Re:Gen would play a factor in the continuing development of the father and young man’s relationship. The young man battled daily to rebuke those thoughts from Satan. He reminded himself that God loved him. How you may ask? He reminded himself according to Step 8 discusses the biblical topic of Forgiveness Jesus paid his debt for the young man. Jesus gave his sinless life as a perfect ransom settling the account with God forever. Jesus made amends with God for sin- not only for the young man’s sin but the entire worlds as well. The Father accepted Christ’s single sacrifice as sufficient payment for anyone who receives his payment as their own. Through the cross, God transferred his demand for justice from us to Jesus and FORGAVE ALL OUR SINS. The foundation teaches we forgive those who have harmed us and become willing to make amends to those we have harmed. The truth is we forgive others because God forgave us through Christ. Remember forgiveness is a decision to obey God, give him our hurts and trust him to repay the debt of sin against us. Passage: Ephesians 4:31-5:2 Cross reference: Colossians 3:12-13 This is a song by Lecrae off his Rehab album titled “Just Like You” This song embodies Lecrae’s testimony growing up of not having his father in his life, so his uncles stepped in as role models and what he learned from them growing up, everything such as how to treat women, gang life, drugs, and violence.
Let’s take a look at the lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/lecrae/justlikeyou.html Over the next year, the young man and his father saw each other rarely and the extent of their communication was over FB. See the father lived in KY and they would get together whenever the father would be in town visiting. On Feb. 17th the young man receives a text late at night telling him his father is in TX and has been in the hospital for a couple days. The young man is told by his siblings his condition doesn’t look good. The young man on the following day goes and visits his father in hospital. The young man and his community group had been praying the night before when they got the news of his father. The young man didn’t know what to expect or what he would say when he would see his father in the hospital. He prayed, as he prayed many times before, that he would come in with a forgiving heart. He also knew he didn’t want to come in the hospital bitter, angry, or resentful towards a man who was absent most of his life and had left some scars along the way. When the young man arrived in the room, the doctors explained the father’s heart and kidneys are shutting down due to previous health complications and at best have up to 6 months to live. The doctors prescribe hospice and saying its more about quality of day to day living than quantity of life. There’s no option for a procedure and the dad’s health dramatically declining. As the son just sat there in the room, he felt a softening in his heart and compassion towards his dad that he had not felt prior. While they didn’t talk much due to his father being in and out of sleep, having hard time breathing, and medical staff coming in consistently to check on the father, the father was fully aware of his son’s presence there. At the end of the visit, the father was eventually being moved to ICU and the son told him that he loved him, shook his hand, and appreciated all that he did. The dad’s last words were that he loved his son and that next time they saw each other, he would be out of his bed and back to being normal. The son left the hospital having received a peace from God. The son prayed and gave thanks to God for the opportunity to spend any last moments with his dad and was thankful for the time spent vs. everything else Satan would say otherwise. On Sunday February 21, 2016, the son receives a message that his father had passed away. The theme of this story was not about shortcomings of the father in the son’s life, but a redemptive story that God orchestrated that allowed the father and son to reconnect even if the time spent was short. More importantly I hope you can experience FREEdom when you entrust the hurts against you over to God. We may fear that by forgiving sin we become vulnerable, unprotected, and powerless. Fears, however, do not direct Christian forgiveness. Christians forgive sin because we trust and obey God. Forgiveness is God’s desire. He forgave our sin and commands us to forgive sin. F.R.E.E F – Face the truth: Be honest. Evaluate sin by the truth of God’s Word. Don’t deny it or minimize it. R – Release the hurt: Honestly give your hurt to God. God Cares. Christ knows your pain and suffered for you E – Entrust justice to God: Transfer your claims to God and let him repay the debt. Don’t hold on to any vengeance, entitlement or expectation for an apology. E – Exalt Christ: Thank Christ for paying your sins, loving you when you were lost, and that his sacrifice covered ALL SINS.
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The month of January has been a difficult one for me. It’s a month where the Lord has broken me down, revealed things of my heart that are not of Him, and is making me something more beautiful that He sees fit (Ecc. 3:11). One of the things that the Lord has revealed to me in the month of January is that I am not truly satisfied in Him and I am constantly in want like a person who goes grocery shopping hungry and buys whatever I think would satisfy me. I know that God is a good Father (1 Cor.8:6), He is sovereign (Ps. 115:3), that I should not be anxious (Matt. 6:25-34), and in everything that I should pray (Phil. 4:6-7). Even in knowing in these truths, when I read Psalm 23:1, I asked myself the question, “If God is my Shepherd, why am I still wanting?” The root of my wanting is that I did not trust God. I did not trust God with my circumstances, I desired His gifts more than Himself (Rom. 1:25), I trusted in circumstances rather than God and His covenant promises that will never change (Num.23:19). I am currently in a study with a friend and I was studying Genesis 2:4-24. Within this passage I saw four things:
The main struggle that I had was that I desired to be in a relationship with a woman more than I desired the Lord. This passage helped me understand that God has made me in His image and has said that I am good (Gen. 1:26-31), has given me a place to inhabit, has given me a purpose and mission and has given me His Law to live for His glory and for my flourishing (Ps. 92:12-13). It was my observation of this chapter that God gave man the first three things and the fourth thing last which is a wife or a spouse. We see that Adam was fulfilling his purpose and mission (Gen. 2:15) before God gave Adam his wife Eve (Gen. 2:18-22). This observation begs me to question, “With the purpose, mission, and tasks that the Lord has given me, does God see that I do not need a spouse to accomplish His tasks currently?” Now trust me I desire strongly to be married and 1 Corinthians 7:8-9 is a strong reality for me (If you know what I’m saying). I know that a wife is from the Lord (Prov. 19:14) and God is the only Father that I know that welcomes His children to keep on asking Him for things (Luke 18:5). The desire for a spouse is a God given desire and He says that it is not good for man to be alone (Gen. 2:18). In the meantime, in our singleness it’s okay to desire marriage, just remember that you are not incomplete or ineffective in the work of the Lord. We have the examples of Jesus and Paul who were not married and still lived out their purpose and mission that the Lord had given them. Brother and Sister, if you have trusted in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection for the forgiveness of your sins, know that you have everything that you need in Christ Jesus (2 Pet. 1:3), God is for you (Rom. 8:31), and He loves to give good gifts to His children who ask Him (Matt. 7:11). Yet, we should be reminded that God is eternal and He has a view that is much higher than our finite minds can comprehend (Is.55:8). Remember, it is because of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection that we who have believed in Jesus are able to look towards God’s goodness and mercy and to be able to sing, “When peace like a river attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll, Whatever my lot you have taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.”
Scripture to meditate on: 1 Samuel 17 David was told by his father Jesse to take some food to his brothers, who were in the war against the Philistines. David went and while he was there heard the voice of a Philistine named Goliath, who was taunting and being disrespectful to Gods people and David became real bold and asked “who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the army of the living God?”. The words David spoke were repeated to Saul, the King of Israel; and the king sent for him. David came and told him I will defeat this beast of a man (not his actual words), but Saul replied “you are too young and Goliath has been a man of war since his youth”. David said to him as bold as he knew how “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine”. A lot of times we are faced with giants that seem almost impossible to defeat and trials that seem like it can’t be endured. In the mist of these trials, I encourage you to remind yourself of what the Lord has done for you in the past and ponder on those situations, thank him for the growth that came from that situation and thank him for bringing you through. After you do that, look at your current situation with a view of who God truly is and what he is capable of. Stand firm in Gods truth. Verses to look up: Matthew 6:33 Philippians 4:6-7 Prayer: Lord I’m struggling with my current situation; I look at it and question can I endure this. The answer is no, but with you I can push through boldly. Lord give me strength to endure, allow your holy spirit to remind me of the truth of your word because that will sustain me. Forgive me for my doubt and lack of faith in you. Thank you, for bringing me this far Lord. Your awesome; your faithful and worthy of my praise. In Jesus name, amen.
This devo is adapted from it's original post at www.teachstylelivefaith.wordpress.com. If you would like to read more, please click the link. “Well, we all make mistakes, dear, so just put it behind you. We should regret our mistakes and learn from them, but never carry them forward into the future with us.” We are constantly aware of how we fall short. These failures seem to scream louder than any of our success. Not only is it our aim to do well in life, but as Christians, we are often concerned about how we are doing in our spiritual life. We may answer to a boss when it comes to our jobs, parents in other things, but when it comes to our Christian walk, we answer to God. There are times when we wonder if we'll ever get out of the mess we're in? But what if this mess, though difficult, isn't as bad as it seems. What if there's a reason. What if God is fully aware and okay with the mess you're in? Let me explain. Growth is a process; it’s not instantaneous. I once met a guy, went on dates with him and completely liked him. Though I liked the guy at heart, the relationship was not what I wanted. We were not on the same page. I knew this. Yet, I continued to go out with him. For a moment, I liked doing what I wanted to do. I enjoyed it. However, over time, I no longer enjoyed it but was stuck. I struggled to get out of my own decision. Because I was not receiving what I desired or knew I deserved, I experienced tremendous hurt and pain. I knew my decisions did not honor nor glorify God. So, I prayed. But the problem was still there. God didn’t just remove it. So, I continued to pray. I told my closest friends and mentors about my problem. They did not agree with the relationship, but they didn’t get a shotgun and kill him (seriously). They prayed with me, checked on me and just surrounded me with love and encouragement. And some days, I did not make the mistake of giving my time to someone who didn’t deserve it. But every time I took one step forward, I took two steps back. So, I prayed. Scratch that... I cried! God, help me! Why can’t I change this? I think I inwardly hoped God would just remove this problem. But he didn’t. So I continued to pray and trust and depend on my support system. It was hard! Some days were tougher than others. But eventually, I started to take more steps forward than steps back. Although God didn’t immediately rescue me from my situation, he used it to teach me to not give my time to those who don’t deserve it. He showed me people who would help me by encouraging me when I succeeded and not enable my behavior (although there were others who would have, I learned that they wouldn’t help me if I wanted to be successful in this). Now I can take what I learned from my mistake and poor decision, and apply it to my future relationships. So how does this pertain to You? Whatever trial or struggle you are going through serves a purpose. 1 Peter 1:6-7 says, "In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith--more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire--may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ (emphasis added). Are you going through a trial? Guess what? It's necessary. Why? So that you may praise God for all he's done once he returns. Not only that, but he's building your character! Many of us know James 1:1-2, but Romans 5:3 says, "Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Our trial also produces hope. The purpose it to build your character and conform you more into Christ's image. This is not your only trial and it won't be your last. Until we see Jesus, he will constantly take you through the process of sanctification--removing what's not like Him and replacing it with what is like Him. Remember my friend, our lives are but a vapor. And though it doesn't change what you are going through, this struggle is minuscule compared to the eternity we have to live in the next life. Yet, I want to encourage you--there is a difference between struggling and fighting! 1 Timothy 6:11-12 says to "fight the good fight." Are you fighting? Or are you just complacently accepting your struggle? Remember, we don't fight against flesh and blood, but we fight against principalities and the unseen things of this world. If you're like me, you wish God we just do something RIGHT NOW. However, if God had snapped his fingers and removed this person from my life, chances are I would probably find someone else like him to make the same error with again. Leaving me in the struggle that my poor choices caused allowed me to feel the pain of my decision. Initially, my resistance to leaving the relationship was due to naivety–hopelessly thinking things would get better. Then I realized I allowed this man to come before God. That was my mistake. I knew that should not be. I knew I had to fight to do what I knew had to be done. And quite frankly, some days I didn’t want to. However, when the pain became too much, I knew I had to. My pastor has always made the statement, “Until the pain of change hurts more than the pain of staying the same, you’ll never change.” The pain was too much for me. Likewise, your pain has to get to a point where it hurts more to stay the same than change. Until the pain of change hurts more than the pain of staying the same, you’ll never change. Will it be easy?This won't be easy. Many times I felt like I was fighting myself and losing! But don't be surprised. Know that you are not alone remember, there is another side to this struggle. God will deliver you from this, you will have victory, and He will strengthen you to do His will. 1 Peter 5:7-11-- "And after you have suffered [he will] restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you." 1 Peter 4:12 says, "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening. But rejoice insofar as you share in Chist's suffering, that you may rejoice and be glad in his glory." You can do this my sister and brother! “Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.” “But what if I make a mistake?’ Will asked.
“We just kept grinding away”, “We just believed we could win”,” It was an upset”, “no one believed they could we win”, Down three games to none they came back and won the next four”, “It was magical!”, “We just kept playing”. These are all quotes from athletes or sports announcers regarding some of the most impressive comebacks in all of sports history. I want to tell you about a comeback story that involves a man name Peter. Mark 14:27-31 Peter did some great things. He was one of the first disciples, who preached one of the first sermons after Jesus’s death that got over 1000 people to come to Jesus. He walked on water with Jesus, and he wrote couple of books in the Bible. Peter is known for a few great things but I think he would rather not be known for this area of scripture? I mean who wants to be known for the failures? Amen?
But Jesus uses this mistake of Peter to glorify God and Humble Peter. A question I propose is where are YOU in your comeback story for Jesus? Jesus is probably not the most encouraging in this passage but he was being truthful and knew the heart of Peter and his followers. In verse 27 he tells them all of you will fall away and scatter. He is saying Things are about to get tough/scary and his own followers are about to bail! Peter Jumps up and says in verse 29 in his pride “Not me, No way!” How many of us are like this? Thinking in our pride that won’t be me! Raise Your hand if You have said I would never do that! Or I would never be in that situation! I would never live in Dallas! I would never drive a minivan! Verse 30 Jesus again knowing the heart of Peter makes a prediction that later comes true, but Peter in verse 31 again in his pride says No way! Jesus I’m all in! There is nothing breaking me! I am confident! I will die for you Jesus! Little known fact is that this story is in all of the four gospels. This probably frustrated Peter if I had to imagine. I mean his own brothers in Christ wrote the books, you think Peter might have been able to convince one of them to take this little story out of scripture! But nonetheless it is a VERY important part of scripture that is to be known and shared. Jesus used a prideful, self-sufficient, brash, impulsive, scared little sinner! Doesn’t that sound like us? I know for me for sure. Jesus is always right. He was right that Peter would fail he was right that Peter is a sinner. He was also right in this scripture before this story. Matthew 16:18 “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church” Jesus Knew Peter’s story, he predicted it and knew he was using his comeback story to inspire others! Jesus knows your story and knows you have failed, are failing,and wants to use your story not to shame you, embarrass you, but set you free and build his Church on your story. Just Like he did with Peter Application: Share your story of grace with someone this week! |
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