Weekend Devotion & Reflections

"A wise child brings joy to a father; a foolish child brings grief to a mother."

~proverbs 10:1


What’s The Cost?>>>more
devotion from our daily bread

It's amazing when God places something on your heart and you come across a devotion that confirms what has been in your head and heavy on your heart. Today's devotion from RBC Ministries hits on something where even today's Christians do not want to deal with...the cost of following Jesus Christ. Sure we like to talk about the love of God but we also have to deal with the fact what God will not tolerate and what Christ Jesus taught His disciples when choosing to follow Him.

When teaching the disciples Jesus taught the cost of following Him(read Matthew Chapter 10 and then truly decide if you wish to follow Christ. I love this chapter because Christ Jesus holds no punches when letting you and know the true cost of following Him) and He teaches us as well. We must believe that He is the only way, the true way and many Christians do not want to say this because the fear of alienating close friends, relatives, co-workers. Right now by me even posting this people are going to disagree with this because many believe how could a loving God be so narrow minded? People see it as narrow minded I see it as truth not only from my pastor in my church but from the teachings from God by studying, praying, meditating over His word.

Many non Christians, atheists feel the Christians are fools and that we "blindly" follow this make believe person that hovers in the heavens...that's their opinion and what I truly love about God is that gave us all free will to do what we want to do. But with any loving parent He has told you and I the consequences of our actions. Isn't it amazing how we do not want "boundaries" or "rules" in our lives, in our schools, in our companies saying "keep God out of our lives" but when things happen we as a nation are the first to yell, "Where was God when this happen" or "If God is such a loving God how could He let this happen?" Free will once again and also God gave you and dominion over the earth and we gave it to Satan in Adam and Eve disobeyed God. Think about this...

God told them the could have anything in the garden except the fruit from the tree of Knowledge. This is like me being a guest/steward in "a state of the art" castle and the owner tells me I have a job to do in the castle and that I can have anything I want, go anywhere in the castle, go into any room I please but there is one room I can not enter and if I do I will no longer be able a guest in the castle. Now me being the geek I am they is everything I could ever want and since I love gadgets, food, music I have access to anything I please...except that one "little" room. Then I get to thinking selfish and saying to myself, "why can't I go in there? If I can have access to everyone other room why not this one? He must be hiding something."

This is how Satan get you and I each and every time. Instead of focusing on the goodness of God and what all He has blessed us with he(Satan) has us focus on instant gratification and Satan never has and never will warn you and about the consequences of our actions. I go in the room to find there are the servers that run the entire castle. Now the owner knows I have accessed the room. Now what was in the room is not important but what is important is the fact is I am a guest, a steward in the castle...not the owner. The owner knows that what I find the servers in the castle I will be tempted to tell him how him (the owner) how he could have his castle run much better. This is sort of the same way with Adam and Eve. God knows everything, our beginning, our end. He knows what we need in our lives, what we need to know, what we do not need to know. God knows if He does not have boundaries in our lives we will think we can do anything and still be welcome into His kingdom...sort of like how our world is today.

We think we can sleep with whom ever we please and God will open us with open arms. We think we can co habit with one another and "God will understand...we're in love". We think it's okay for men to sleep with men and women with women because, "God made me this way". When Christians get to talking about this, we are judging and we have no right to judge.

Here is the thing...this is not judging, this is judging choices we make and this goes back to good and bad consequences. Example if I am standing before the Lord and I am a heterosexual, I a Christian, I tithes, I on the deacon's board but I slept around on my wife and there is a gay person standing before the Lord who do you think will be turned away from God...both! God does not judge us on who we are but whether or not I lived by the standards he put in place for our lives. Think again, He is our Father and he wants what is best for us and He will never keep anything from us that will enhance our lives.

We talk about judging...our parents did this throughout our lives when growing up. We may have wanted to play with a certain child and our mom and dad told us "No". We ask why and they tell us "he's not a good kid. They have seen him around the neighborhood always getting into trouble". Did they think they were better than that kid or are they judging him because of who he is? No. Our parents say his action, how the child was living his life and our parents invested to o much time in our lives teaches you and I right from wrong and did not want us getting into trouble. By them being our parents means they are out and they see more what is going on in the neighborhood. We may not like the call our parents make in our childhood but we thank them once we are older and we begin to see things the way our parents see them in the world.

When we count the cost of obeying God, following Christ Jesus we will lose something that will bring us pain, but it's only temporary because what He has in store for our lives our weigh the worldly choices Satan has for you and I. God is a very loving God and He wishes no one to perish but God is our Father that has principles, standards and virtues for you and I to live by and like I said before, He gave us free will but He also reminds us time and time again the rewards of obeying Him the cost of not obeying Him.

Be Blessed,
Be Safe & have
a Wonderful Weekend.

Praying For Our Children
Christian Embassy Church

Self-Esteem

"God, help my children develop a strong self-esteem rooted in the realization that they are Your workmanship."

Ephesians 2:10

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Faithfulness

"Let faithfulness never leave my children, but bind this virtue around their necks."

Proverbs 3:3

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Devotion & Reflection for this Weekend.

Our Living Hope>>>read more
from rbc ministries|our daily bread
to hear the songs I have along with this post
go to my Vox blog

This devotion speaks to not only the believer but the non believer as well. When a love one dies and whether or not we are Followers of Christ or not we feel a sadness, an empty space in our heart, in our soul, we miss their presence. We understand when some one up in age has died but not someone prime in their life or someone born with a disability. We get angry with God, we feel he has done he are she was wronged in life. I have gotten older now to know that I do not have all the answers and God may reveal them to me once I am in His presence or He may not. This I do know, God is real, God has given us emotions and He know we will get upset with Him from time to time and He is okay with that.

I have come to an understanding in my life where if someone close to me dies I will mourn and I will grieve but I know that one day Jesus Christ will rise them again and if they were a believer in Christ Jesus I will be with them again because of His promise. Nothing we do surprises God so when tragic happens in our lives He knows we have questions, we will sometimes lash out at Him, we may even curse Him but He is a loving, wonderful, forgiving Father that after all the angry, sadness He is there for you and I. He may choose to answer you and in that time of hurting, the answer may come gradually, or He may answer at all. But know this, if we are truly love the Lord and we trust Him, He will give us the strength to go on and that hurt will heal and he will make you a vessel to heal someone else in that time of need.

I'm will not ever downplay someone tragedy because that pain is very real. I have learned not to say, "oh I know how you feel" or other things to that nature because as I said earlier I don't have all the answers nor will I pretend have all the answers. Many times the best thing to do in situations like these is to "just be there". When Job lost everything it says his friends came and sat with him for 7 days and just mourned and cried with him.

Sometimes they will lash out at you if they know you are a believer, it's not against you so do not take it personal because again, we as humans want to know "why?". I have come to this conclusion in my own life...I trust God, I know God has my best interest in heart. I know that since the fall of Adam and Eve, there is going to be death, tragedy, suffering. God did not attend for it to be this way but since our first, "Father and Mother" was rebellious, we are paying the price for their disobedience. But I also know that God gave them free will, to love Him or not to love and follow Him...he loved you and I that much. I also know that He sent His Son over 2000 years ago to take our place where our sins were placed upon Him...our past, present, and future sins so that we will rise again, be with our loves ones that believed in Him also and that is a awesome for me to know where I will be once I die.

Death will bring sadness, anger in our lives but knowing that they know God and believed in Jesus Christ also brings joy that we will be united with them and will be with God and them for ever and ever is great news as well.

Be Blessed, Be Safe, and Have Great Weekend.

Praying For Our Children
Christian Embassy Church

Love

"Father, grant that my children would learn to live a life of love., through the Spirit who lives in them."

Ephesians 5:2
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Integrity

"Lord, may integrity and uprightness protect my children because their hopes are in you."

Psalm 25:21

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