By Nick Parsons Some of us have heard the acronym B.U.S.Y which stands for Busy Under Satans Yoke. I myself will confess I’ve had seasons of struggling in this sinful pattern of filling my days, weeks, and sometimes months of things that I think are important. This has brought various anxieties of F.O.M.O (fear of missing out), performance (trying to be a part of everything that seems good), or trying to jump ahead of God as a result of impatience and distrust. I sense this same pattern for our current generation. This all occurs due to our jumbled priorities of what we consider important vs. what is urgent.
For those who have read Tyranny of The Urgent by Charles E. Hummel, he highlights some great points:
If we also take a moment to reflect The Parable of the Sower in Mark 4, this is a great parable describing distraction and business according to verse 7 which says Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Hebrews 12:1 also reminds us to throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. Ask yourself… “When is the last time I stopped, got on my knees and prayed instead of praying on the go?.” “ When have I put away the electronics so I could open up God’s Word or go to bed at a decent hour to get rest?” “Do I often say “no” to certain events or things, even if they are good, so I could spend quality time with God or loved ones” We can combat business with a few disciplines to anchor us daily. When we….
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by Meredith Bard I’ve spent much of my life figuring out my identity. In middle school I was the awkward band nerd. In high school I was the athlete. In college I was the overly studious teammate, boosting the team’s GPA. Now I’m a writer. But those are the labels given to me by the world. My identity—and yours—are different in Christ. We’re redeemed, adopted, chosen, forgiven, accepted, loved, and given a ministry of reconciliation to a broken world. And today I want to hone in on an aspect of my identity that I often neglect, and you may too—our identity as priests and priestesses. Moses went up the mountain to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain: “This is what you must say to the house of Jacob, and explain to the Israelites: ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Me. Now if you will listen to Me and carefully keep My covenant, you will be My own possession out of all the peoples, although all the earth is Mine, and you will be My kingdom of priests and My holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to say to the Israelites.” –Exodus 19:3-7 In this excerpt from Exodus, God deems the entire nation of Israel priests, called to pray, make sacrifices, talk to God for others, and minister to people. This is their identity, but something tragic happens in the next chapter. When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, "'Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.’ Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.’ The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was." –Exodus 20:18-21 When the time came to walk in their identity as priests, Israel rejected it. Instead of every member of the chosen nation speaking to God on behalf of others, they shrink back in fear, placing the duties of their priestly calling on the shoulders of one man. Can you relate? I know I can. I’m often like the Israelites who pass off their identity as priests to Moses. After all, aren’t pastors like Todd, Matt, JP, and David more equipped to do the priest thing? But that’s not what God wants. He desires for us to fully own the identity His given us. I’m thankful that in our shortcomings His grace abounds. “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” -1 Peter 2:9 The gospel that turned our lives right side up restores all things … including our identity. We can walk unashamed of our priestly calling, declaring the praises of Him who called each of us out of darkness into His wonderful light. In doing so, I’m confident we’ll find deeper joy in our greatest treasure. Will you embrace and live out your full identity today? by Steven Nguyen “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the LORD.“For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” –Jeremiah 29:5-11 Greetings ChristFit! I am writing this devotional on an airplane to D.C., which happens to be very bumpy, and I am already missing y'all. I am longing to be back with y'all next Sunday. FYI, wearing skinny jeans expedites your way through airport sa-kurrity (security). To start this thing off I want to say that I love ‘Merica and it does not take long to see that our country is headed towards principles that does not align with how God designed the universe to work. With that, I believe that the Bible and the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified and resurrected for sinners will be fought against and the culture of Christianity will and has been fading from the moral climate of our culture. My hope and prayer through this devotional is to encourage my brothers and sisters in Christ to recover an identity of being an adopted child of God, bought and ransomed by Jesus Christ, who are citizens of the kingdom of God, and not just American citizens who happen to be Christians. There is a vibe that I sense that Christians are feeling as if we are losing a battle, and the truth is that if we are in Christ we are already victorious (1 Cor. 15:57), we are citizens of Heaven (Phil. 3:20), and we are aliens and strangers in the world (1 Pet. 2:11). If our identity is in Christ and our citizenship is in heaven (and a real and awkward reality is that our life and time here on earth is but a vapor) (James 4:14), what is our role in the predetermined time and place in which God has placed us in (Acts 17:26)? We can look, learn and follow the principles in Jeremiah 29 in what we are to do as aliens and strangers in a land in which is not our home. In Jeremiah 29, Jeremiah writes to the Jews who are exiled within the Babylonian take over. In short, Israel lost its distinction as a nation. We see:
May we be citizens of the Kingdom of God who have been exiled here on earth for a purpose to glorify the Lord; make Him known by sharing the hope in which we have in Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection for the forgiveness of the sins, which separates us from the Lord; and to prepare the second coming of Jesus. In the midst of the chaos and uncertainty, we can see through the Word of God and through Hebrews 11 that God is faithful. Whether we are knocking down walls in victory or being fed to lions, may we be a people who are marked by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, remembering what God has said through Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans for you declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” I worked at Kids Across America, a Christian sports camp, every summer during college and a few years after. At this kamp we go cold turkey on A LOT of things: cell phones, TV, internet, coffee, candy, and gum! Letting go of these above items is not the easiest thing for college students to do. As you would guess, many are tempted to rebel. Each summer during staff training, Joe White, the leader of the organization, would tell a story about a young man who had the decision to chew a piece of gum he had secretly kept or not to. When another gentleman saw him as he was contemplating this decision, he didn't chastise him or tell him not to, he simply asked him, "Is your integrity worth a piece of gum?" That question is forever ingrained in my mind (and also made it very hard to try to sneak in and chew a piece of gum). However, this man had a point. His question represented more than a measly piece of gum. His question implied that if this young man would sacrifice his integrity for a piece of gum, what else would he sacrifice? His marriage, his friendships, his morals, etc. It's a slippery slope. Yes, I know that seems far stretched, but where do you draw the line? Where do you stand? Merriam Webster defines integrity as: 1 : firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values : incorruptibility 2 : an unimpaired condition : soundness 3 : the quality or state of being complete or undivided : completeness I'd like to focus on the third meaning-complete or undivided. When it comes to our integrity, I believe we must be complete in who we are (i.e. who God has made us) and undivided in our decisions. We determine who we are and where we stand far before any situation actually asks us to apply it. As God's men and women, we must already make up in our minds how we are going to act in any given situation, far before we ever actually experience it. If we don't, we'll be easily shaken and lured into the standards of this world. Todd Wagner, the pastor at Watermark, has created a nice PDF that list 5 characteristics with over 40 scriptures backing his stance of what it looks like to be God's man/woman in today's world. I encourage you to not only look at the one that applies to your gender, but to both, that you might know the company you should keep (Psalm 1:1, Proverbs 27:17, 1 Corinthians 15:33). Heck, why not just go ahead and make them your wall paper!? :) |
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