52 life changes which affect your community

8/8/2019 52 Life Changes Which Affect Your Community

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Hewlett-Packard

1/1/2010

52 Life changers to

effect change in

your community

A series of sermons/ devotional readings which focus on personal

changes which will empower the people around you.

Dr. Paul R. Friesen

2010


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How Should We Live to Change Our World?

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Dedication

These sermons were first given in 2009 and 2010. Though the

numbers are few the topic has been in my heart for a long time. I

dedicate this to my grandfather who went places others wouldnt. He

believed the ones who needed to hear didnt come to church. The

mantle that he wore has possibly been passed on to me. We change

our community through Gods change of our lives first of all. God is

not limited to this, but His desire to show the world who He is

through His chosen people is real. Let us offer the peace that compels

us to the world that needs it; the power that indwells us to those who

are caught in webs of their own choosing; confidence to walk beside

those who are hurting and abandoned except by God.

Dr. Paul Friesen

2010


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Topic List -- in order of delivery

Devotion 1 Know Jesus

Devotion 2 Changing our Lives to reflect Gods Freedom

Devotion 3 Changing our lives to reflect Gods holiness

Devotion 4 Jesus is Everything

Devotion 5 Jesus is Coming

Devotion 6 Live your Faith

Devotion 7 Changing our Lives to reflect Gods Holiness

Devotion 8 Having Less Stress / Casting your Care on JesusDevotion 9 Forgive One Another

Devotion 10 Fill Gods ears

Devotion 11 Changing Clothes

Devotion 12 Willing to be ledDevotion 13 Stop arguing over . Unimportant things

Devotion 14 Stay focused

Devotion 15 Share each other's burdens

Devotion 16 Knowing who we are

Devotion 17Guard your heart above all else

Devotion 18 Forgetting the past / looking forward to what lies ahead,

Devotion 19 Live for Eternity

Devotion 20 Celebrate the freedom of truth

Devotion 21 Speaking about what we have seen and heard.Devotion 22 Let God do His job

Devotion 23 Depend on God Alone

Devotion 24 Preparing your mind

Devotion 25 See people like Jesus sees themDevotion 26 Stop the fighting

Devotion 27 Trust God from the bottom of your heartDevotion 28 Is anything too hard for me?

Devotion 29 Make allowance for each other's faults

Devotion 30 Looking forward

Devotion 31 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Devotion 32 Grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.

Devotion 33 We have peace with God

Devotion 34If any of you need wisdom, you should ask God

Devotion 35 Slow to speak and slow to become angry

Devotion 36 Be disciplined

Devotion 37 Build an alter

Devotion 38 Find grace in Gods eyes

Devotion 39View God as a God of joy

Devotion 40 Shine brighter


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Devotion 41 Stay focused

Devotion 42 Serving others worshipping God

Devotion 43 Be generous with your lives

Devotion 44 Let the mask slip

Devotion 45Show proper respect to everyone.

Devotion 46 Know more about God

Devotion 47 Help each other succeed

Devotion 48 Never stop being thirsty

Devotion 49 Christ living in me

Devotion 50 Bring out the best in others

Devotion 51 Commit your way to God

Devotion 52 Wait and listen


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Devotion 1

Know Jesus

Reading ~~ Psalm 2:1 -12

In this series we want to look at Jesus and how great a Savior He is.

Today we will see that His life was not all miracles. We like to see

Jesus as a miracle worker, because He is the Savior.

In the Psalms we find several things that show us what Jesus life was

all about.

In this Psalm we find that the life of Jesus was predicted many years

before Jesus came. This is not unique to the Psalms. Most of the bad

part of Jesus life can be found in the Old Testament like Isaiah and

the Psalms. The miracles are not usually found there.

We can almost read this Psalm like the newspaper today. The kings

of the earth have taken their place, and the rulers are fixed in their

purpose, against the Lord, and against the king of his selection,

We find so many leaders today who are against Gods people. David,

the king in this Psalm was being chased by Saul. The king had fixed

in his mind to destroy what God had chosen.

The first point in thinking about David, Jesus, and us Christians is

that all of us were chosen by God.

The second point here is that God protected David and Jesus from

anyone who wanted to harm them. God has a purpose for everything

in your life.

David was chosen by God but he had to wait to become king. He had

to hide for several years. Jesus came down to us as a man and has had

to wait for so many years to return as KING.


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The third thing that we find in this Psalm is that God has already

given Jesus the authority to rule the world. Psalm 2:7 I will make

clear the Lord's decision: he has said to me, You are my son, this day

have I given you being God has made it very clear that there is only

ONE SON OF GOD.

Jesus is coming soon. It has been written by so many and we almost

forget that soon is soon. The signs are here. The kings of our

countries are rising up. But Jesus will come to give us the Crowns we

deserve but also to destroy those who have opposed HIM and His

plan.

The Psalm did come true but this principle is a theme through the

Bible.

As we start this new study we need to put Jesus in the center of our

life so that we will be ready when He comes and not be destroyed or

crushed as a piece of pottery.

Are you ready for Jesus today?


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Devotion 2

Changing our Lives to reflect Gods Freedom

Reading ~~ James 2:12-26

Last week we found that we needed to bear each others burdens

rather than focus on the sin that was committed. This does not take

away the consequence. Rather this attitude of Christ is to bring us to

accountability for our own mistakes.

James is a book about living out our faith. James is the book to read if

you want to know how to live by faith. Like Paul had written before

that it is the value of our faith that is more important than any otherthing in our life.

For James, who writes to the Jewish Church, faith and tradition were

very important. It was tough to accept the idea that the world could

now have gentiles having salvation. Therefore, James writes in verse12 - Let your words and your acts be those of men who are to bejudged by the law which makes free.

But which Law makes you free? Laws are made to restrict us. They

are there to penalise us or to protect us. Like speed cameras restrictyour need for speed and penalise you if you disobey. But the speedlimit is there to protect everybody from hurting each other.

We always want to be free from the Law. This concept is the hardest

one to learn but James does a good job showing how it works. The

Law that sets us free is the Law of God.

In the next verse James writes that we will be judged as we have

judged others. This can be scary. It is also something that we say in

anger when we get criticized. We hate to be judged but we judgeothers all the time.

The Law of God sets us free to serve God, to exercise our gifts and

talents to their fullest. This is because we cannot control what others

do, but God can. We can only change ourselves. We can only control

ourselves.


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If God is the center of our life then we are free to serve and let God

control the direction of our service.

In verse 24 James writes -- You see that a man's righteousness is

judged by his works and not by his faith only. Now we have said thatthe value of our faith needs to be high. But if the value of our faith ishigh we can do two things. We can hide it, or we can demonstrate it.

God loves challenges. If we are to be righteous we do not need tomake new laws which are restrictive and penalising. We need tounderstand Gods Law and show the world what real faith is. Faith isnot based in what we can do, but on what God can do.

If we are to live like James suggests in this book we must set

ourselves free to let God do His work. This means that we see ourworks like God does. God sees what we do as a demonstration of ourfaith. James uses the stories of Abraham and Rahab as goodexamples. When we set the direction of our life to Gods direction wewill set ourselves free to live our faith in the real world.

God looked at the choices Abraham and Rahab made and blessedthem both. They showed the world that the world makes choices onwhat they see today. They made choices that challenged their faith inGod, and God took the challenge seriously.

Many people make choices of jobs because of the pay or benefitstoday. When we go Gods way the road looks tough and dangerousnot always glamorous and rich. But when we take Gods choice weshow the world the value of our faith and challenge God todemonstrate His power to the world around us.

How should we live? We need to live our lives with an active faith,challenging God to show Himself to the world through our choices offaith, not being reckless but rather choosing directions which Godhas chosen which makes us free to serve.


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Devotion 3

Changing our lives to reflect Gods holiness

Reading ~~ 1 Peter 1: 3-16

Changing our lives to reflect Gods holiness (1 Peter 1:13-16). Our

walk with God will be joyful and satisfying when we stay focused on

eternal life instead of temporal things that we often occupy ourselves

with (1 Peter 1:3-9).

I had a discussion with, a Korean friend the other day. We discussed

the idea of what God was like. It was an interesting discussion and I

think if we are to look closely at God we may find that God is not alllove joy and peace.

Peter who writes our scripture today has a few things to say about the

God we serve. I say serve because as the Apostle Paul writes in

Romans we should choose our Master. We often see God as a soft

cuddly guy. In reality He can be a very hard Master. So why choose

to serve Him?

God is a Holy God. He sees everything in black and white. You are

saved or you are not. You have accepted His sacrifice or you have

not. It is the only decision that counts with God. That sounds harsh

but it is the beginning of our choice of Masters that brings us the

benefits of being His servant.

God never sees us as servants. God sees us as family members. This

is different than the other choices of master we have. Let us read

what Peter has to say about God and how we should live our new

Christian life. In verse 3 Peter says that God is full of mercy and give

us hope. This is not the ogre that some people think God is.

In verse 4 Peter writes that God is fair and forever new, waiting in

heaven for you. God is perfectly fair. He never changes the rules. He

treats everybody equally. He never gets old. God understands our

stresses. God knows the pressure of culture and economy. But God

does not change the rules because we make bad decisions.


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Have you ever played a game with your friends and changed the rules.

The game is maybe a little bit boring so you change it to make it

more fun. Sometimes our life is a bit boring. Sometimes we think

being a Christian is no fun. We want to change the rules so that we

can have more fun.

God cannot do that. In real life if you have the power, peace, and

confidence that God promises, life will be exciting. Some people saywe shouldnt struggle. Live should be always happy. Some people

will even say you are in sin if you are not happy. This creates a lot of

stress in many people. We are always in sin. We cannot get out of it

because we are born in sin. But we can see our struggles differently

than the world around us.

Peter says that we struggle so that that we can test how good our faith

is. Good meaning how much value does it have in Gods values.

Verse 7 - So that the true metal of your faith, being of much greater

value than gold which, though it comes to an end, is tested by fire,

may come to light in praise and glory and honour, at the revelation of

Jesus Christ:

When we consider what is valuable to us what do we think about?

Most often we think about the material things we have. We thinkabout our family and relationships. But do we ever think about our

faith as more valuable than all the rest of our life?

How should we live as Christians? That is the question we want to

answer. If we look at this scripture we find that the first part of living

to change our values, changing our values from physical to spiritual.

The second is to use Gods rules for our life not ours. Life is full of

tests but it is the value of the reward when the test are over that we

need to focus on.


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The Holy Spirit is the seal of our salvation. But He is more than that.

He is our Comforter when we get stress. He is our guide when we get

lost or make mistakes. He is the person who makes us feel guilty. He

is God living in me.

In your life today are you confident in Jesus living in you? Is your relationship active and fresh with God? Do you listen to the Holy Spirit?

Jesus can do everything. We just need to ask him. Have you done that

today?


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Devotion 5

Jesus is Coming

Reading ~~ Matthew 24: 3 -14

Jesus was worried about His disciples. They could not understand

who He really was. They had a lot of questions to as and such a short

time to ask them all.

Have you ever had that problem?

You want to ask your teacher something but you cant seem to find

the right time or the right words to say it. The time is coming whenJesus will die and go back to heaven. He told them when He was

going to come back. He told them the signs to look for, but they had a

hard time imagining the things would happen. To the disciples the

end was close and coming. Their desire was to have Jesus push the

Roman Army away. He was their Saviour in a physical sense. Jesus

told His disciples that they should be careful about false teachers.

This was a great danger because their desire was so high that they

would not see the truth. Jesus was talking to us today as well.

There is an increase of teachers who have big churches but are not

true to the Word of God. People follow them because they do

miracles and have a large following. We follow the popularity of the

preacher and do not look closely at the truth of his teaching. This

does not mean that Jesus cannot do a good work through them.

God is not limited to a mans teaching. Jesus said that there would be

wars but this was also not the end. It was a sign of the end.

They should not get stressed. Today we have many wars and rumours

of wars. We have Presidents who want to stop war because of popular

demand. We should not get stressed over war. Korea is always faced

with war. The news is full of war. But as Christians we need to stand

and show how to understand this. We have the Peace of God inside

of us so we need not get caught in the emotions of our culture. That

Christians were to be hated is not found so much today. The Church

was persecuted by Rome and many died. But this is coming.

Christianity is becoming a religion to fight against and Islam the

religion to embrace. The religions which promote oneness in

ourselves are attracting many people.


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Selfishness not Selflessness is becoming the norm in our culture.

There are so many things that we can see today that the disciples

could not see. If you read Revelation, Daniel, and Romans you will

find that nations will rise against Israel. There will be a one money

system and government. All these are not far away. Now they are not

here but they will be. The Church will not be the place to run but to

persecute.

The challenge is to stay true to the Word of God. We cannot just go

to Church and believe. We need to become strong in our faith. It was

the faith of the disciples that allowed them to experience the Holy

Spirits power. It is faith that gives us salvation and it is faith that will

be our guarantee of future home in heaven.

How is your faith today?

It is based on Jesus Christ or is it based on Jesus and culture?

As we look closer at some of these ideas I hope you will grow in your

faith.


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Devotion 6

Live your Faith

Reading ~~ Titus 2:6

15

How should we live now? If Jesus is coming soon this is a good

question. It is not something we think about a lot of the time. It is

something that we dont worry about.

In todays economy there are so many stores changing. The

customers are spending fewer dollars and the struggle to pay school

and living bills gets higher. So the question is again, how should we

live in our world today?

Some would say that we need to be rich and healthy because God has

promised us this. Some would say that we need to follow the best

way in everything. The problem is which is the best way?

Which Pastor is the best?

Which Church is the best?

Which religion is the best?

Which school is the best?

If you remember last week we said that life would get tougher for

Christians. It is because we are Christians that we can do what Titus

is writing to the churches. Let us read these verses together. 2:6 To

the young men give orders to be wise and serious-minded 7 In all

things see that you are an example of good works; holy in your

teaching, serious in behaviour, 8 Saying true and right words, against

which no protest may be made, so that he who is not on our side may

be put to shame, unable to say any evil of us. 9 Servants are to be

under the authority of their masters, pleasing them in all things,

without argument; 10 Not taking what is not theirs, but giving clear

signs of their good faith, in all things doing credit to the teaching of

God our Saviour. 11 For the grace of God has come, giving salvation

to all men, 12 Training us so that, turning away from evil and the

desires of this world, we may be living wisely and uprightly in the

knowledge of God in this present life; 13 Looking for the glad hope,

the revelation of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ;

14 Who gave himself for us, so that he might make us free from all

wrongdoing, and make for himself a people clean in heart and on fire


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with good works. 15 On all these points give teaching and help, and

make clear what is right with all authority. Let all men give you

honour.

The key to living in the end times is to live with honour. This is the

hardest. People will criticize you for many things and it is your

response that will live forever. You can come to church every day

and not have honour from your neighbours. You can look good in

Church but not be good Monday through Saturday.

He first writes in these verses to be wise and serious. We need

wisdom because there are so many temptations to follow people and

not God. This is why we found last week that there are going to be

many false teachers. They are attractive to us so we need to be moremature in our faith. We need to take our faith serious so we can be

wise.

Second he writes that we should be an example of good works; holy

in your teaching, serious in behaviour. I think the good works are not

so hard. We like to help those who have need. But in todays world

we need to be careful to see which is a scam and which is not.

The Church is usually the social worker in tough times. We need tobe holy in our teaching which is balanced and pure.Our teaching

needs to be based on the WORD of GOD not tradition and here say.

Not on others books first. Our teaching must come from our

relationship with God because He is a living God. The reason why

we need to see these things is so there are no accusations against

which no protest may be made, so that he who is not on our side may

be put to shame, unable to say any evil of us. This is the hardest part.

To live so there is no challenge to our life is hard. I have made a

philosophy that the only thing to fight for is integrity. Integrity comes

from a life that is consistent.

You will be challenged but if you live your life right and say things

which are true the challenge will put the challenger to shame. When

you have integrity you will not have to fight.

You do not need to argue you just need to continue and though it is

very painful people will understand in the end. Jesus did this. Many

people criticized Him for the way He did and said things. It took

them a long time to get people to understand but He didnt fight them,


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He continued living His Fathers will. As leaders we need to train our

people so that, turning away from evil and the desires of this world.

This has happened to me. When I left Canada there were many

people who criticised me for doing it.

My children had to go to school and hear the gossip and it hurt them.

After three years people started to realise that what was being said

was not true. We may be living wisely and uprightly in the

knowledge of God in this present life. We need to look for the glad

hope, the revelation of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus

Christ, who gave himself for us, so that he might make us free from

all wrongdoing, and make for himself a people clean in heart and on

fire.

Jesus continued His life even though death was at the end. He did it

for you and me. He did it so that we can live the life He wants us to

live. He did it so that when He lives in us we can show our

neighbours and community the peace, the power, and the confidence

in our life that only the Holy Spirit can give us. We cannot live the

way Titus writes without the Holy Spirit in control.

We will fight against those who hate us. We will fight to keep our

pride. But Paul writes in Ephesians that we shouldnt fight the fight.That is GODs job. We need to stand firm in the truth of our

relationship with Jesus Christ.

In the end the integrity of our faith is the only thing that matters. In

the end it is our relationship with Jesus Christ that matters, not how

big our car is or how rich we are.

Where is your life like today? Are you fighting battles that are Gods? Are you living the faith in your power or Gods?


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Devotion 7

Changing our Lives to reflect Gods Holiness

Reading ~~ Galatians 6:1-10

As we study some ways to live, we must understand it is not just

survival. God has called us to live in this world as Ambassadors. God

has called us to change the world through the way we live. Paul gives

us some ideas of how we should live so that Jesus can be glorified

though us.

In chapter 6:1 Paul writes, Brothers, if a man is taken in any

wrongdoing, you who are of the Spirit will put such a one right in aspirit of love; keeping watch on yourself, for fear that you yourself

may be tested.

It is so easy to criticize other people. It is easy to blame our teachers

for our poor marks. It is easy to blame the other driver for our

accident. It is just easy not to take responsibility.

But Paul writes that we shouldnt do that. That is what the world does.

We need to be different. This doesnt mean that we ignore the truthabout others or ourselves. It means that we need to be honest.

Someone asked me the other day about Jesus choice of Judas and

Thomas as disciples. Why did Jesus choose these two who He knew

were going to betray him and doubt who He was?

Sounds silly dont you think? Choosing people who you know would

not be faithful. Let us look at this principle of helping one another

together. First we all sin. That is normal so we will all be caught in

sin now and again.

Second, ALL sin is equal in Gods eyes. We like to think of sins as

little ones and big ones. As children we sometimes talk about white

lies and real lies, but a lie is a lie. So when we are caught in sin by

another how do we respond?

How are we different than other people? How are we different than

the other religions around us? Sometimes we are no different or even

worse in our reaction to the faults and failures of people. I know I am

often critical of things that seem dumb or stupid.


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To show the Christ we have inside of us we need to react differently.

Paul writes that we need to first go with love not anger or critical

mind. That is hard sometimes. To help us we need to look at

ourselves first. We need to see our emotion and mind to make sure it

is full of love for the person. Why do we do this first?

We do this first because we can also be tested and we are also sinners.

When our mind and emotions are ready we can go and take the

burden or share the burden of the other. We may be critical but we do

not just yell and criticise the other. We do not need to gossip but say

it face to face in love. When we do it in love we come along side the

person to share the load of the stress and help the other person change

to the mind of Christ. Isnt this the goal of living the Christian life?

To reflect the Jesus in me to the world is what we do. We have nochoice because Jesus lives in you and me. What does this reflection

show to our neighbours?

To live free we must commit to the Jesus in us. When we want to

change people to our ideals we get stressed. When we help people

change to be more like Christ we also develop into more like Christ.

When we help people change to be more like Christ we have less

stress because God is doing the changing I am sharing the burden.

Am I changing to reflect Christ more? Am I helping the world around me see Jesus through my

reactions to the stress in my life?

If we are to live with Power, Peace, and Confidence as Christians the

answer needs to be yes. If we answer no we need to pray and ask

God for help.


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Devotion 8

Having Less Stress / Casting your Care on Jesus

Reading ~~ Philippians 4: 613

Living as Christians in todays world is not easy. We have the same

emotions as other people. We desire things like other people. So

when Paul writes this chapter to the Philippians he is writing because

there is a small concern.

Remember the hardest thing we have to do as Christians? That is to

keep our eyes focused on Jesus. I think the second hardest thing is to

do what Paul says in the first verse of our reading today. That is togive our cares to Him. In Korea people worry about image so much it

consumes their life. But they are not alone.

My parents always used to tell me that I needed to be careful of what

I wore or what I did because of other peoples opinions. We are so

worried about our image that we forget about the image of Jesus we

give to the world.

Now you cannot really separate the two ideas. The choice is to actlike Jesus was watching or to act only in public to please other people.

Can you imagine how Paul wants us to live? Having no cares?

Actually not being burdened by our cares is a better understanding.

If we didnt care we wouldnt be good parents or teachers. If we

didntplan we wouldnt be good business people. What Paul is

saying here is that we need to let God take care of things we cannot

control. We cannot control the future. We cannot control other

peoples reactions. We can only control what we do. Jesus will take

care of the rest.

We get stressed out because we worry about things that are not ours.

We worry about our image to the world. We worry about the desires

that we have that someone might see. But God sees everything all the

time. He sees things we do not see. In verse 7 we find that the result

of this letting go let God idea is peace. But it is not the kind of peace

that is on the outside. The kind of emotion that we show to our

friends. It is not shallow and changeable. Rather it is deeper than


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anything. It is a peace that gives us the confidence to move forward

in any storm.

Remember the Gospel story about Jesus in the storm. His disciples

were at peace as long as there was no storm. They were confident as

long as there were no problems. The Gospels are full of these stories.

What Paul is talking about here is the confidence to tell others that

everything is ok. Paul had such an experience on the way to Rome.

When the snake bit him he had the confidence to say everything was

going to be alright. Did he care? Did it hurt? Of course he did. But

the confidence to give assurance of the end result was what made

Paul different.

Paul writes to the Church in Philippi from experience. He writes tofollow him. To live our lives rightly is to choose the right person to

follow. We need to focus our eyes on those things that are true,

whatever things have honour, whatever things are upright, whatever

things are holy, whatever things are beautiful, whatever things are of

value, if there is any virtue and if there is any praise, give thought to

these things. We should not focus on those things that take our eyes

off of these things, or following people who encourage us to do

differently. John writes in Revelation that there would be false

teachers and that many would follow. The people who follow Godhave the peace and confidence that money cant buy. It isnt

dependent on anything else other than God and the power of God.

How should we live?

Following is easier when we do not have to carry a backpack full of

cares and worries. Living is easier when we are free to serve and notburdened by the weight of stress that is Gods not ours.

What do you care about that is Gods care? What gives you stress that you need to give to God? Who are you following today?


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Devotion 9

Forgive One Another

Reading ~~ Ephesians 4: 22 - 32

How should we live in this world? It is turning faster and prophecy is

being fulfilled every day. We can see it clearly. What is the hardest

thing we do as Christians?

This is key to understanding how we can survive and live in this

world. The hardest thing in this world is to keep our eyes on Jesus.

We need this if we are to do what Paul writes in Ephesians. A little

later Paul will write about the armor of the Christian. Paul encouragesus to put away the old person. This is something we do find easy at

any time.

The key to success is to keep our eyes on Jesus. The second part of

what Paul writes is why the Church is different, or should be different,

than any other, yet is not, most of the time.

The problem is what Paul writes here. Right at the end in verse 32

Paul writes. And be kind to one another, full of pity, havingforgiveness for one another, even as God in Christ had forgiveness

for you.

Forgiveness is what we preach, but it is often not something we

practice. This is because if we are not focussed on the Jesus ALL the

time we cannot do it. Other religions preach it as the way to take

away your stress but often deny it for their enemies. This is where the

Church and Christians are or can be different. In Africa Islam only

gave food to their people. Other people starved.

The Church gave to all people and gained integrity in the community.

This is a good example of not separating the one from the other. But

then we hear the words, I wont or cant forgive you. When a

Christian says they forgive but do not let go of the hurt they do not

understand how healing forgiveness can be. We like to get even later.

This means we do not have a right view of God and His Son Jesus.

Paul encourages us to put away all wrong words and things. The

writer of Proverbs says that if we bless the one who curses us we


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bring fire on his head. Forgiveness is not done when we do not have

our eyes fixed on Jesus. It cannot happen because then we fix our

eyes on ourselves.

We see our self as the one hurt but it is God. We want to take

responsibility for revenge when it is Gods job. When we fix our eyes

on Jesus we can do what Jesus did to us. He forgave us so we could

be free to serve Him. When we serve Him we have power, peace, and

confidence. If we do not forgive we bind the other.

It is the opposite of what we should do as Christians. We are to We

need to help people experience the freedom of Christ not bondage to

us. Forgiveness is all about how we see Jesus. Forgiveness is all

about our relationship with God. We serve a personal living God. Ordo we?

When we fail to forgive or struggle to forgive we show the world

who Jesus is to us. We show the world what value our relationship is

and the power that we have to overcome the pain and the hurt to

create healing. How should we live?

What keeps us from forgiving? How much more power would we have if we were to fix oureyes on Jesus all the time? What do you care about that is Gods care? What gives you stress that you need to give to God? Who are you following today?


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We also do not listen enough to God. We allow ourselves to be

caught in the desires of our hearts not Gods heart. So how do we

know what is mine and which is Gods?

That is a good question. I cant answer for you. For me it is easy

sometimes. I know when it is something I want. I get frustrated and

often get impatient. When it is Gods will there is peace in my heart.

This peace gives me the confidence to continue when people criticise

my direction. I can stay focussed.

Sometimes I do not hear Him because there is too much noise in my

ears. The noise comes from people who think they know the truth.

They are people we want to stay friends with. We focus on them and

not on God. This is where the problem is.

I have a friend who I appreciate. This person has told me many times.

My friends say that The list is long. This person says they

listen to what I say, and that is true, but the friends have their ear. If I

tell the truth it is the friends who they listen to who determine right

from wrong.

We do the same with God. We listen to God but then we dont

believe and follow because we think that our friends know us better.They know our situation better.

In real life God knows every breath we take. He has numbered our

hairs and knows our every thought. So why dont we listen more

often?

Most often it is because we have too much stress. We have too much

stress because we have lost our focus on the Truth, Jesus Christ.


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Devotion 11

Changing Clothes

Reading ~~ Isaiah 61:1-11

In the last chapters of Isaiah there is a message of hope. Isaiah is a

book written to Israel first and to us. He outlines the Easter story and

then gives us hope for salvation.

Today we want to focus on the idea of new clothes. In the New

Testament Jesus talked about old and new wineskins. The idea is the

same. It is important that when we think of theology that the theology

is taught in both the Old and the New Testaments.

When we become Christians we are a new person. The problem is

that we like the old and the new doesnt always make us feel good.

We are scared of the changes it will bring.

Imagine you had an opportunity to buy a new set of clothes, but you

had to go shopping with me and I would choose what you bought.

There is no limit to what you will get. But you must only buy three

things, and you must throw out all your old clothes first.

Would you like that?

Maybe for the men it would be ok. For the ladies I think they would

feel uncomfortable. Me! Buying your clothes?

It takes a lot of trust. I used to buy my wife a new 4 piece set of

clothes with shoes and handbag every year. I would give it to her on

our anniversary. Then one day she got angry because I had not

included her in the idea. It was my surprise and I took all year to findjust the right color and style.

This is how we often view our Christian life. We view it like

someone has set rules for us and controls things. This person makes

changes in our life that we dont like or want. We like to keep a little

bit of the old. We like to hold to just a few things.

Please God! We cry out. Dont make me throw out everything.

Or we tell Him what we want and expect Him to buy it for us.


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If we are to live our life with the peace, power, and confidence we

need to consider the clothes that Jesus has given us.

In verse 10 we read that Jesus has given us for he has put on methe clothing of salvation. Salvation is the undergarment of everythingwe wear. It is the most important thing in our drawer or closet.Salvation is the garment that covers all of our sins in the sight of God.Salvation comes from the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ givesus access to the power of God. The blood of Christ is the channel ofcommunication through which we talk to God effectively in ourprayers.

The second piece of clothing which God has given us is the robe of

righteousness. Once we have salvation God wants us to wear therobe of righteousness. This is the piece of clothing that the world sees.

Righteousness is what makes us different than all the other people inthe world. There are many people that say they are Christians butthey refuse to put on the robe of righteousness. They just use theunderwear of salvation. They think it is enough. But we are notdressed as a Christian without righteousness. Righteousness is therobe that gives us the peace to live our life differently.

The third part of our dress is the headdress. Isaiah understand thebrides mind when he writes, as the husband puts on a fair head-dress, and the bride makes herself beautiful with jewels.

A bride is proud of her choice of dress. But when she puts on herheaddress she feels nervous. Did she make the right choice? As sheputs the headdress on and the jewels she gains confidence. She gainsconfidence because the person she has chosen to commit herselfgives here peace and power she needs.

The headdress is what gives confidence. It is what confirms thedecisions of commitment that she has made.

The picture that Isaiah gives us is one that we can see the ideas ofhow we can live our lives with the promises of power, peace, andconfidence. It gives us a picture of how we can be successful.

Have you changed the clothes in your closet yet? Have you put on all three pieces of clothing God has given

you to wear?


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Devotion 12

Willing to be led

Reading ~~ Psalm 23

There is a story of a person who went to a counsellor. He had a lot of

stress and he needed some answers. The counsellor told him to repeat

this psalm three times a day for 30 days. If he still had stress he

should come back and get some more counselling.

The man thought the counsellor was really strange but he tried it.

After 30 days was finished he went back to the counsellor. He was

asked if he still had stress. The man said, No! I have a deep peace. Icant believe it.

To live in our world today we need to let go of our control. This is

hard but again we find ourselves focussing on the idea of who is God.

One of the problems we find today is that our view of God is

distorted. We need to reset our ideas of who God is.

That is why this psalm is so important. The Lord is my Shepherd is

very important in our life today. Lets look closer. The role of ashepherd is to feed, guide, and shield us. This whole psalm is about

Gods care of us. The key is to let Him care for us. In English key

ideas are found in the action of the object.

The first one isI shall not lack. This means that I will have

everything I need, not everything I want. Now it is hard to imagine

that God means this if you are in a country where war and violence

makes you run to a camp in the desert.

It is hard to imagine this when your child dies of hunger because

there is no food or water. But this is not about the physical part of life.

It is about our relationship and how we see God in our world, the

Lord as Shepherd, and we as sheep. The Shepherd is responsible for

the welfare of His sheep. He makes sure that His sheep lack nothing.

But when we focus on the things like the physical we lose sight of all

the issues. We have a free will and the fight for control is always

there.


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Most if not all arguments are about perception. These two sisters had

different sets of values or perceptions of what is most important.

My question to you is what is most important to you in your everyday

life? Is it making money, or having a clean house, making your

children happy, or for students having better toys than your friends.

How many would say sitting at Jesus feet is most important? The

pastor of course but most of us would not consider it important. It is

for a short time in the morning or evening maybe. It is your answer to

this question that will help you understand the attitude that is

necessary to live our lives as Christians in todays culture.

To Martha the sharing of the load was most important. Jesus was aguest and you had to make sure the house was tidy and nice for Him.

Anything else was not important.

We often see our Christian life like this. We are busy keeping it clean.

We dont do things that would make it dirty. We are busy arguing

about things which are less than most important.

We need to first take time at Jesus feet. We need to absorb what He is

teaching us. Jesus doesnt mind a cluttered house. He is notconcerned about our position, or how much money we have.

When we think of how much time we spend on the most important

things, do we consider that we should constantly be at Jesus feet. It

should be our first desire.

What is so important that it takes us away from sitting at Jesus feet?

Only youcan answer that.


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Devotion 14

Stay Focused

Reading ~~ Colossians 3: 1 -13Colossians is a wonderful book. There is so much to learn from this

small book. There is only one problem with these encouragements.

The problem is that people take one or two of them and make them

like laws. But as we look at scripture we need to look at the whole of

the idea. Lets look at the first verse we read today.

3:1 If then you have a new life with Christ, give your attention to the

things of heaven, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Inthis first verse we find our theme that we have had for the past few

weeks. If you have a new life in Christ how should we live?

We have focussed on the idea that Christians need to show Christ to

the world through our lives. One key idea that we find over and over

as foundation to finding the peace, power, and confidence, is that we

need to stay focussed on Jesus. In this verse it says we need to focus

on the things above. This is so important.

In English we like to say we need to be down to earth. We need to

real. But what is real? In our eyes we find ourselves looking at the

physical. This means we concentrate on money and pursuit of

happiness.

In Church history happiness was sometimes looked down on as sin.

That is not what Paul is writing about. It is not what Jesus wanted

either.

When we become Christians our life needs to make a change; achange to a lasting deeper peace; a life of more confidence in our

hardship; and power of Christ to overcome all things. But, as I say

this the problem is that Christians often have the least respect. They

make rules that are focussed on the outward not the inner secret life.

God is concerned about the secret life. What looks good on the

outside is not always what is on the inside.

The second conclusion we find here is the idea of forgiving one

another. Lets look at some principles that Paul writes here before he


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says this. 3 For your life on earth is done, and you have a secret lifewith Christ in God. 5 Then put to death your bodies which are of theearth 7 among whom you were living in the past, when you did suchthings. 8 But now it is right for you to put away all these things.

These four statements are the foundation of Paul writing, andhaving forgiveness for one another, if anyone has done wrong to hisbrother, even as the Lord had forgiveness for you: verse 13.

When you become a Christian these things should happen. If you donot do these things forgiveness will not happen. If you cannot dothese things you will never rise above where you are now.

For some that is ok. Some people have money, security, good family,

and fun. They have everything but the peace, power, and confidencethat they desire. They have all the physical things but still it is notenough.

To rise above these things we need to understand how important it isto forgive one another. In order to make forgiveness effective youneed to focus on things above the hurt that was done. You need tofocus on your secret life with Jesus not the outward life you live forothers.

How is your secret life with Jesus? Does it reflect the outer life youlive for others?


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Devotion 15

Share each other's burdens

Galatians 6: 1 -10

In the church this is the hardest thing to do. Sharing money and

sharing food is not hard, but sharing what is giving you stress can be

difficult.

People talk about things and dont keep confidences very well. To

share burdens is to open ourselves for criticism. To share burdens

takes a lot of trust. That is why we dont do it often.

But Paul was not talking about sharing our secrets. Paul is writing

here about someone who is caught in a wrong and how Christians

should respond to it.

Remember that we want to learn how to live a Christian life in our

culture and community more effectively. When we find or see one of

our friends stealing or cheating or doing something wrong what do

we do? Maybe your friends never do this. But there are many peoplethat do and they are called Christians. Sometimes it is attitude.

The normal response for a Christian in a church who is found out

doing something wrong is to beat them down. To run away from

them. The strong ones will come along side.

In Pauls culture the church was young and immature. People who

became Christians were not transformed immediately. They needed

help to understand the new life and relationship they had entered.

Paul starts with this first situation about sharing the burden of the

struggle to be righteous. Paul writes that these strong ones should

come alongside being careful that they too dont fall into the same sin.

Paul continues with sharing the burden as a responsibility to cover

those who sin with protection so they dont do it again and

accountability for us.


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Forgiveness is what we talked about before sharing the struggles of

growing in Christ. Falling and failing and getting hurt. Our response

to these things set us apart from the world around us.


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Devotion 16

Knowing who we are

Reading ~~ Psalm 139: 1-16

One of the most interesting ideas in scripture is who God is. We

know who God is. We know many names for God. The problem is

we do not comprehend His greatness in our lives. To impact the

world around us we must not only understand but give recognition to

who God is and His power. When we truly believe in God the way

we say we do our world will change.

In this Psalm David acknowledges who God is. If you are to read thePsalms that David wrote the theme is God. We read the Bible and

pray. We do good deeds because we feel we have to. Being a

Christian is a chore and many times a bore.

In history the power of God has come when we focus on God. So

often we talk about ourselves in our prayers. We talk about ourselves

in our conversations. Sometimes it is attitude. The normal response

for a Christian in a church who is found out doing something wrong

is to beat them down. To run away from them! Sometimes the strongones will come along side. In Pauls culture the church was young

and immature.

I have so many conversations with people that talk about themselves.

I listen and give short responses. A few times people come to me to

ask about God. People are searching for answers to their lifes

problems. God has the answer.

In the Old Testament the Law that God gave was to help keep the

people focussed on Him. In the New Testament we find the

Sadducees and the Pharisees lost the focus. They focussed on keeping

the tradition and them rather than giving the power and the glory to

the God they claimed to worship.

Today we focus on relationships. We focus on happiness and self

satisfaction. We pray for our needs and ask God to bless our desires.

In this Psalm David shows his understanding of him and God. When

David was successful he gave God the glory. He focussed on God.

Today we want to focus on who am I.


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Devotion 17

Guard your heart above all else

Reading ~~ Proverbs 10:12 - 23

Proverbs is a book we need to go through very slowly. It is so full of

wisdom. Wisdom that is timeless and can fit any problem we have.

But these proverbs also need to be studied in sections. Today we read

a few verses. We want to focus on verse 23. The topic is the heart.

Verse 23 says we should guard our heart because it is the source of

life. We dont think too much about our heart unless we are older.

But it isnt the physical heart that Solomon is talking about here.

In one way the heart is the source of life because it pumps our blood

around and around and never complains too much. But it is

interesting why the heart is so important to the wisdom of Solomon.

We are told to guard our hearts because it is the center of everything

we think, do, and say. If you study the word heart in scripture you

will find that most of the time it refers to this definition. Solomon

contrasts the evil person and the righteous person in these verses.

It is what he says about the evil is important. The evil person seeks to

live for today. Now that is not all bad. We need to think about today,

our work, our study, our commitments.

Solomon writes that sleep will not come to the evil man until he does

evil. In contrast the righteous man is said to be brighter all the time.

In real life this is hard to understand. This is because the non-

Christian seems to get ahead in life when our Christian life seems to

be so dull.

In real life we cant see ourselves getting ahead if we dont cheat a

little bit. We live in a culture when cheating is normal and accepted.

It is thought to be the only way to get ahead. A little lying and a little

cheating will get you a better grade and a lot of happiness.

It was no different than Solomons time. If you read the bible and

history the cheater won in the beginning only to lose in the end.


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Sometimes it is easy to think we can cheat and have success. It is true.

We can.

But then we must ask ourselves if the outcome is what Solomon says

it will be to the person who protects their heart. Solomon says that the

life of the righteous person will be brighter and brighter until the end.

It is hard to see that far ahead. It is hard to see it at all when we are

stressed. Why should we guard our hearts? Well it is not only our

hearts but how does it get to our hearts.

Solomon tells three ways to get to our heart. He says, take learningin your hands. Our hands can do many things now that we havecomputers and cell phones. We can so much more than the people in

Bible times. We need to be careful what we let our hands do. Theycan easily open our heart to pain and misfocus.

He says, or be walking. This means that we should watch where wego. Feet usually follow a path. We need to choose our friends andpaths wisely. To choose friends who do not travel in the light or downnarrow paths will open our heart to pain.

He says, let your ear. Ears are the most dangerous. It is not themusic we listen to but what the friends say. If we believe what wehear we can be easily persuaded to let our heart be hurt. The last arethe eyes. Solomon says that we should not let them, the sayings andwisdom he was giving go from your eyes.

We often think that the road for Christians is narrow. To understandthis thread throughout scripture, we must understand the idea ofmaturity. Solomon says here that verse 12 When you go, your waywill not be narrow, and in running you will not have a fall.

This means that if you protect your heart by caring for your ears, feetand eyes you will make choices and have freedom in Christ that

others will only dream of.

If we do what Solomon says we will experience a freedom in Christthat will empower us, fill us with a peace that others envy, and giveus confidence to influence the world around us.

We try to protect our heart by keeping our road very narrow. We livein fear of falling because we see God in the wrong light. It is in Christthat we can only experience we desire. We must make choices toprotect our heart. Are we making the right choices? What is keeping

us from experiencing the freedom of Christ?


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Devotion 18

Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,Philippians 3: 10 -21

Philippians is a great book for encouragement. In this chapter Paul

writes about his testimony. In the beginning verses Paul writes about

his life before he met Christ.

In todays world I have found a lot of blame being put on others. To

impact our world we need have two choices. The choice we make

will impact our life and those around us.

Let us consider the choice Paul made. He had a desire to serve God.

His desire was so great that he put people in jail because of it. Then

he met the real Jesus. His life changed and he found himself with no

friends and many enemies. Paul had choices to make. If you read

about Pauls life in scripture you find that the choices he had to make

were not always easy.

Paul writes in verse 10 that we read that his desires changed from

serving God to knowing God. Now that is a big decision. It is a bigchoice, but to change the world we need to understand this.

The New Testament is used as a tool to send missionaries around the

world. The Old Testament is about knowing God. Together the way

the Church changed the world around them was to experience a

relationship with God.

Just serving God means we are just servants not sons and daughters.

Jesus said that we are sons and daughters. So why do we act like

slaves not heirs to a kingdom?

Because we hang on to the past. In verse 13 Paul writes that he has let

go of the past and has moved forward. It is the first step to knowing

God. Paul never forgot the past but he did not let the past bind the

freedom he had in Christ. This is a key theme of forgiveness as well.

It is a key theme to salvation. Letting go of the past allows us to grow

in Christ. Letting go of the past allows us to see our neighbors as

Jesus sees them. That was the secret of Pauls life. He had a bad past.

He was a murderer. But, he was also a redeemed man.


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If Paul had held on to his past sin he would never have experienced

the power of Jesus in his life. If Paul had help on to his past emotions

he would have never been able to minister effectively to a church that

struggled with Gods choices.

This letting go is also the key to the unity of the Church which is

grounded in Christ. It is the key to setting our life goals. It is the key

to being guided by Christ.

If we do not let go of our past we can serve God as only servants.

If we do not let go of our past we will lack the power to move

forward to the point of confidence.

If we do not let go we will never experience the peace that God haspromised. I told some students the other day that the only thing

stopping them from success was themselves.

This is the same in the Christian life. The only thing that keeps us

serving God not knowing God is our hanging on to our past failures.

How do you see yourself today? Are you serving or are you living your position as sons and

daughters of God? What attitudes and things from the past keep you from

experiencing the peace, power, and confidence that God

wants you to have?


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Devotion 19

Live for Eternity

Luke 6; 21

35

This is an amazing set of verses. You can find similar ones in the

book of Matthew we call them the beatitudes. We should call this

sermon now and forever. In Jesus teaching he talks about now and

later. A study in contrasts! The contrast is between what we have and

what we are going to have.

Many people suggest today that we get close to the world because it

has all the answers. We live in fear of criticism so we follow peoplenot God. Since we want to focus on how we can live in this world

these verses are very important. Jesus is talking not only to the 12

disciples but those who had followed him. This large group of people

were both rich and poor.

Jesus knew that tough times were coming. That being a Christian

would not be popular. One of the keys to the Christian life is that we

live for eternity. In these verses Jesus is talking about that exactly.

What is now is not forever. This theme is found from Genesis toRevelation in the Bible.

To be effective in our witness to the world we need to focus on the

forever. But Jesus also addresses the idea of living our life with

integrity. When I talk to people about the church they tell me how

rotten it is. It is greedy and it doesnt listen. What a shame for the

Church, which claims to be representative of the true God, to have

such a reputation.

Jesus knows the hearts of men. He knows that when we have things

we are never satisfied. If we are to live our lives to change the world

around us we must be able to accept that people do not like it when

we have something they dont. We have peace, power, and

confidence. We have what they want and cant find.

There are many preachers who say we should not accept anything

less than greatness and riches. You do not find this as regular

systematic teaching of scripture. What we do find is that if we live for


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the physical pleasures they will last only for a short time. If we live

for eternity we will find ourselves stronger.

When you read these verses you can get confused. Jesus teaches,

happy are you who are in need of food now for they will be full. How

can you be happy when you need food? The teaching continues with

these opposites. It is the attitude of focusing on eternity that people

who have nothing have. The ones who have everything struggle to

keep it and lose their focus.

Today people want to have jobs, which is normal. This is not what

Jesus is talking about. We need jobs for living. We need to focus on

how much we have in Christ not how much we have in the bank.

Too often we live for today. We desire for today.


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Devotion 20

Celebrate the freedom of truth

Reading ~~ John 8: 22

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What is truth? Jesus says it will set you free.

I think this is one of the hardest questions to answer. If we cananswer this question well, we can weather the storms in our life.There is so much insecurity and people try planning for theirfuture. Planning is good but why be a slave to it, when you canbe free.

In some ways we are scared of freedom. In the Old Testamentfreedom and God was rarely mentioned. In the New Testamentthe choice was much more open and the freedom to choose wasa topic of discussion.

Does freedom mean there are no rules? Absolutely not! It is theobedience of the rules that gives us the freedom. The problemis who sets the rules?

In these verses we find that the leaders of the Jews wereconfused at Jesus teachings. They were bound by the laws thatwere not Gods laws but their own laws. They had lost the truthand therefore their freedom. They had added to the truth andlost their freedom.

If we are to change our world we must have an answer to thestress that we find around us. The answer is freedom in Christ.

Freedom in Christ is what makes us different than otherreligions and people. But we need to understand how Christdefined this freedom. Jesus said, but the One sending Me istrue. The One here is God the Father. To have this freedomthat truth gives us, we must have a relationship with God.

Jesus then says. the One who sent Me is with Me. The Fatherdid not leave Me alone. This One, who is God, never leaves usalone. That is why He promised us the Holy Spirit.

A person asked me about the role of the Spirit.


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One thing that the Spirit does is to let us know we are not alone.To understand the freedom that the truth gives us is to besecure in our relationship with Jesus Christ. This means thatwe need to have an active spiritual life so that there is no fear.Fear casts out truth.

It distorts the truth and takes away our freedom. Then Jesusteaches his disciples that for I do the things pleasing to Himalways. When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will knowthat I AM.

The key here is, I do the things pleasing to Him always. We alllove freedom. We hate rules to live by but we focus on the rules.

What Jesus is teaching us here is that to have the freedom wemust understand who God is. If God is a person who makes uslive by rules we are servants to Him. When you lift up the Sonof Man, then you will know that I AM. This teaching is aboutwhat we do in our life.

People ask me why I came to Korea, or why I am a teacher, etc.In real life everything I do I do to please God. To please Godalways we need to know who God is. We must put our desiresaway and concentrate on Him.

Experiencing this freedom can be done only when weexperience God. Truth is not found in God. Truth is God. Themore we know God the more freedom we will have.


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Devotion 21

Speaking about what we have seen and heard.

Reading ~~ Acts 4:6

20

What have you seen God do lately?

Sometimes that is a hard question to answer because we want to say

nothing. It is often the case even for me. The reason is that we are

looking for the big things. In these verses we find two things that will

help us be the change in our community and our lives.

If you remember, we had been asked to think about the reason we

were criticized. In these verses the disciples Peter and John are askedto defend themselves. They were criticized for healing people by the

leaders of the spiritual community. They were criticized for following

Jesus.

The thread we find here is that the defence is about what was seen

and heard. The second thread is the command to stop doing.

We find that the two disciples that had the less education than the

other disciples, and who had the confidence and power to stand and

defend what had happened. Their defence was simple. The Jesus thatyou rejected did it.

This is a key to how we should live. One thread in theology that we

find from Genesis to Revelation is that Gods purpose is to give us

peace, power, and confidence. There are many different views of how

we get this but the key is obedience to God.

Jesus promised that the disciples would do the same things He did.

And they were doing it. But to do it the disciples had to get moreeducation. NO! That is not true. All they needed to do was obey.

Sometimes we make things too complicated.

The problem with this is to know who to obey. Another problem is to

know that it is God speaking. How do you know that it is God

speaking to you? I think this is the biggest question today. To the

disciples the choices were clear but today there is a lot of confusion. I

have many friends that have asked me this question.


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Devotion 22

Let God do His job

Romans 5:1 -15

As Christians it seems that we have a hard time believing what we

say we do. By this I mean that we have a lot of knowledge but lack

experience. This lack of experience creates lots of words but also a

lot of insecurity. This insecurity makes us hold on to people not God.

This idea is important to understand and a key to the power of God in

our lives.

In a conversation I had with a professor the question was whethernon-Christians should be involved Christian music clubs. Though I

understand the dangers, what better place to see God at work?

Worship is something that should impact people toward a deeper

relationship with Jesus.

The last few weeks we have stated that our personal experience is

important for our lives to be effective cultural changers. Today we

find the same thing being written by the apostle Paul.

Paul starts this chapter with the idea of righteousness through faith.

This means that we must have the faith to believe in the work of

Christ. It is this small faith that gives us hope in the glory of God. It

is this hope that allows us to endure any experience.

In the conversation I had with the other professor the question came

up, how much of the bible do we really believe? This is a good

question. Remember last week I had asserted that knowing about God

is not knowing God. Reading the Bible can be just like reading

another book. Then it gets boring and soon we put it on the side.

When we read the bible to find answers to our secret questions we

find that God is speaking to us there. When we pray we can hope that

maybe God will listen, but God has not only promised to listen but to

answer.

Paul writes in verses 3-5; 3 And not only so, but let us have joy in our

troubles: in the knowledge that trouble gives us the power of waiting;

4 And waiting gives experience; and experience, hope: 5 And hope

does not put to shame; because our hearts are full of the love of God


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Devotion 23

Depend on God Alone

Reading ~~ Matthew 11:16-30

Mathew is a book of great teaching. Matthew is the historian of the

four gospels. We find the lineage of Joseph and the story of John theBaptist.

In these verses we have strong contrasts of ideas closing with the end.

Lets look at the contrasts first. In the first verses we read about the

culture that Jesus was born into. It is like the culture we are in now.

We see the people around us crying and yelling like children in the

market place. Now you dont see it here much in the market because

we have stores. But, if you go to the traditional market or a real open

market like you would find in the Philippines or Africa the children

yell at each other like they are having fun. There is no discipline in

their life, just lots of fun.

Then we find Jesus saying that He threw a party and nobody showed

up. Jesus had performed many kinds of miracles but nobody saw

Jesus as the real Saviour. The One who could set them free, not from

the Romans, but real freedom from the bondage of the Law. WhenJesus wept over Jerusalem nobody wept with Him. Another contrast

in how insensitive the people had become spiritually. They were

doers not people who lived in a relationship with their God.

Jesus was also not a respecter of persons. He talked with a Samaritan

at the well. He told His disciples to get grain on the Sabbath.

Everything He did was criticized by the spiritual leaders of Gods

chosen people. Jesus could not seem to convince people of His desire

and mission here on earth. Did He go to the wrong places? If He hadgone to Tyre and Sidon would those have been better?

You can almost read that here until you read a bit farther. It would

seem that because of the hardness of the leaders hearts God hid the

secrets of Jesus mission and purpose from them, preferring to open

the eyes of the children who had a simple view of life.

The educated people were trying to figure God out. They studied the

writing of the law and created great orations about its interpretations.

They, like we, require a lot of debate about trivial matters. We desire


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But we now serve a living Christ. We do not need to sacrifice live

animals today. It is the blood of Christ that covers us and makes us

holy. But holiness is again we do not really concentrate on. When we

do we forget to be like Christ but obey the letter of the Law. We

make rules and barriers for people to achieve to see them as holy

people.

With a living relationship with Jesus Christ we understand holiness

not as rules but as a goal that can be achieved only in a relationship

with Jesus Christ.

Third Peter addresses the desires of the Jews to be free. Free from all

the laws that made their life a burden. They saw freedom as a

physical idea. Free from the Romans.

Jesus saw freedom to be empowered in their lives.Peter also had

experienced this freedom through great struggle as we read in the

book of Acts.


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Devotion 25

See People like Jesus sees Them

Reading ~~ John 7: 12 -27

Imagine who will be in heaven in the future. This can be a greattopic for discussion. Who will go to heaven? I was asked that bya Korean person awhile ago. He asked me if he would go toheaven. I told him it was not my decision but there was oneway to be sure.

For some people it is just great discussion. Their view of God is

just a God of love. But God is a God of justice. He doesnt bendthe rules like we do. He likes to see things in black and white.

We like to see things in color or gray. John writes about Jesusdifferently than the others. He was the one whom we are told,that Jesus loved. He writes about the confusion that was foundin the people when they experienced Jesus.

There are several arguments here. The first is how Jesus got hiseducation when he didnt go to Seminary. I think we have thissame argument but not with Jesus, but with other people whoare successful.

Jesus was a carpenters son and a humble mother. He had noUniversity degrees, but He seemed to do things others couldnot. The idea is no different from the Church as Paul writes. Weare gifted by God for His purpose. The arguments today are thesame. The problem is we focus on what we understand not thegift of the person. We have become focused on the standards of

the world not God.

Because John was a Jew he also wrote to Jews. They livedunder the Law. The rules for their life were hard and madeharder by the leaders of the Synagogue, so the arguments hereare from the leadership and Jesus answers them.

Jesus answered them with a simple argument. 17 If any man is

ready to do God's pleasure he will have knowledge of the

teaching and of where it comes from--from God or from myself.


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The first is to be ready to do Gods pleasure. The problem isthat often we want to do Gods pleasure only when we see itbenefiting ourselves. In verse 18 Jesus says ~ The man whosewords come from himself is looking for glory for himself, but

he who is looking for the glory of him who sent

him--that man is true and there is no evil in him.

The second is our motivation. Often our motivation is aboutkeeping ourselves equal with our neighbours. There is nothingwrong to want to be better. The problem is that we startlooking at others differently. We become like the leaders thatJohn is writing about here. Vs. 19 Did not Moses give you thelaw? Even so, not one of you keeps the law. Why have you adesire to put me to death? Then Jesus tells the honest truth tothem. No one keeps the Law. This is the message of the book ofJohn and the essence of who we are.

We try to keep ourselves looking good but it is never goodenough. In my life it has been the same. I felt called of God tobe a preacher. So I looked to others for direction. Each pastorand teacher gave me different directions. The directions weregiven so that I could achieve the goal of pastoring in a specific

denomination or organization. Cut my hair. Change how Idressed. Obey all the rules. But I could never get it right. I wasnever good enough. I didnt have the image they wanted. Whenthere was trouble scripture was second to image.

Today I want you to focus on what Jesus is saying here. I wantyou to see people around you as Jesus saw them. He didnt seepeople as Baptists or Presbyterians. He didnt see them as richor poor. He saw them as people who needed Him.

In verse 19 we find that Jesus asks the perfect question. Vs. 19Did not Moses give you the law? Moses did give the Jews theLaw from God, but what did Jesus give? Jesus gave us the doorto gifts beyond our imagination. Jesus gave us life. The Lawgave the Jews hardship and death.

Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit. The Spirit who seals our hope,and frees us to experience the peace, power, and confidencethat we long for.


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Jesus gave us access to the knowledge and wisdom of God tosee others differently. They are not just people. They are peoplewith a need. They need Jesus.

Finally John writes in verse 24Let not your decisions bebased on whatyou see, but on righteousness.We can only dothis if we have an active relationship with Jesus Christ.

Who will go to heaven was the first question today. It doesntmatter which Church you attend, how often you read the bibleor pray. Jesus is the only door. All those who have an activerelationship with Jesus Christ and are covered by His bloodwill get this reward.

We dont know when Jesus will return. With the earthquakes,typhoons, and war growing around us we need to be ready. Weneed to see the world around us as Jesus sees it. They need arelationship with Jesus. We should not judge from the outsidebut from the inside as Jesus sees it.

What has Jesus given you that is worth telling otherpeople?


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Devotion 26

Stop the fighting

Reading ~~ Philippians 2: 1 -18

There is a common complaint about Christianity. That is that they

dont need enemies because they hurt themselves. This means that

Christians fight amongst themselves.

What a terrible reputation to have in a world that is crying out to us

for peace. It is a terrible thing to preach peace to the world when we

are at war within ourselves. Philippians is about the joy and gladness

we have as Christians. It is an admonishment of the apostle Paul to

the Church at Philippi to not lose this joy. But this joy is not just for

ourselves but for the joy of those who are around us. For Paul it was a

sense of fulfillment and success in ministry to see the churches he

planted experiencing the joy of their Christianity.

There are dangers though if we become unbalanced in what Paul is

teaching here. When we read these verses we find ideas like verse 7

But he made himself as nothing, taking the form of a servant, being

made like men; . he took the lowest place, and let himself be put to

death, even the death of the cross. 9 For this reason God has put himin the highest place.

This is what Christ was and is to us. Our desire is to be like Christ.

What a great idea. It is a great goal to have. But we missed something

here! We missed the idea that came before these verses. The idea

found in verse 3 Doing nothing through envy or through pride, but

with low thoughts of self let everyone take others to be better than

himself;

How does this fit with what we said at first? Fighting about who is

better or richer or has power takes away from the power of God. If

we see others as higher than ourselves we are in danger of low self-

esteem. If we have no pride in ourselves we are in danger of

depression.

So what is Paul writing here? What does Paul mean when he writes

in verse 12 that we need to work out our salvation with fear? If we

follow Paul as he writes here we would follow like children doing

what we are told without any questions.


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But Paul is not writing this way at all but it is often what is taught.

Paul is writing, if we read the whole chapter and book of Philippians,

we find the key in verse 10 So that at the name of Jesus every knee

may be bent, 11 And that every tongue may give witness that Jesus

Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 13 For it is God who is

the cause of your desires and of your acts, for his good pleasure.

The whole of our life needs to be focused on giving God the glory.This idea fits the whole of scripture and all of Pauls writings. But it

also shows how silly we can be if we take just a few verses of

scripture and apply it to our lives and teaching.

The church has lost its power because it has chosen not to build on

this cornerstone of teaching. The power we desire is never far away.The peace that we want to lessen our stress is never far away. The

confidence in our future is never far away. We just have to let God

have the glory. We must let others do better than us. We must reset

our goals in life to match those of God.

There is nothing so exciting as the joy that Christ gives. There is

nothing so powerful as a person who is confident in a time stress.

There is nothing so encouraging as seeing people grow deeper in their

relationship with God, which in turn brings more joy to their life.

To feel like we are complete is a different feeling. To not desire to be

something we are not, but encouraging others to be more Christ like

is opposite to our culture. But what Paul is saying here is true. Pauls

one desire was to see the church grow in maturity which was

reflected in its unity.

To be unified as Christians not denominations runs against our

cultures. Too many pastors are insecure. They are scared another

bigger church will take their people, and that is often true. We mustbe careful not to take our eyes off the goal of becoming more mature

which affects all other people in our ministry circle.

You may not be a pastor or leader today but if you are a Christian you

are a minister to others. Your joy will be the change in others and will

help bring unity to the Body of Christ. Today we need to ask

ourselves the question. What takes away our joy in Christ? What

takes away from the unity in Christ which will change our

community and culture toward a more mature relationship with Jesus

C

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