Ephesians 4:22

that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, NKJV

I need to go back and read my previous blogs, and remember and pray more about the things God is showing me through them.

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling,
And to present you faultless
Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
To God our Savior,
Who alone is wise,
Be glory and majesty,
Dominion and power,
Both now and forever.
Amen.

Romans 12:12

rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; NKJV

Last night I had already resolved to begin waking up earlier for morning prayer, but this verse reconfirms the importance and value of my doing so.

Today was admittedly a failure, but I must also be patient and not become discouraged as I begin forming a habit of rising earlier, regardless of how difficult I find it in the beginning.

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling,
And to present you faultless
Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
To God our Savior,
Who alone is wise,
Be glory and majesty,
Dominion and power,
Both now and forever.
Amen.

Romans 12:11

not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; NKJV

I need to be more diligent, and to be fervent in my diligence.

Regardless of the busyness of our schedule and surprise events and outings, I need to finish my work with more immediacy; to not allow distractions to keep me from my work, whether that means leaving the room when I can or simply applying myself (with the help of prayer) more to ignore them; and to get it in my head that I do not need to allow myself time for fellowship, because if I finish early in the week I'll be free later without any worries of being able to finish hanging over my head, if I don't finish early than I couldn't have afforded that time anyway and regardless, I need to remember that I'll be able to spend plenty of time with everyone between mandatory events and our free time (or surprise events depending on which we have) even if I do need to sacrifice my free time early in the week to insure that even if something does come up unexpectedly I'll still be able to finish everything before I'm scrambling to find time the day before a paper or reading is due.

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling,
And to present you faultless
Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
To God our Savior,
Who alone is wise,
Be glory and majesty,
Dominion and power,
Both now and forever.
Amen.

Romans 12:10

Be kindly affectionate to one another with brother love, in honor giving preference to one another; NKJV

I forget this. I enjoy serving people and doing things for them, but when the time comes that they are doing something which bothers me, I do not honor them by giving preference in my heart.

When I ask them to stop and they refuse, not to be intentionally rude or anything but simply because they don't recognize that it really does bother me, I have trouble just leaving the issue be in my head. Not wanting to make an issue of it or appear a bother, I leave the matter alone, but I don't graciously give preference to their desires over my own with honor for them.

I need to think on this and remember the next time I run into an 'it' situation, and to pray for peace and contentment in my heart in Christ, especially when others are being insensitive to my own needs/desires, and remember that He is all I really need.

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling,
And to present you faultless
Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
To God our Savior,
Who alone is wise,
Be glory and majesty,
Dominion and power,
Both now and forever.
Amen.

Romans 12:9

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. NKJV

Love without hypocrisy.

I need to remember to pray more often for greater patience and peace of mind when others are doing things that distract me while trying to focus or complete work.

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling,
And to present you faultless
Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
To God our Savior,
Who alone is wise,
Be glory and majesty,
Dominion and power,
Both now and forever.
Amen.

Mark 8:38

"For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” NKJV

At times it is easy to become afraid of preaching or speaking of Christ. Yet in our country is there any good reason for that?

Technically yes. . . in our culture we have been conditioned for religious freedom; no longer pure religious freedom of religion, but now freedom from religion, the touch of religion, the importance of religion and the sharing of the "Christian religion".

Mental blocks that, at times, seem too prove stronger than threats of death in silencing our faith.

If faced with a gun, most of us would say that we would not deny Christ. We cannot know what our actual response would be until faced with just such a situation of course; many of those believing themselves brave and firm in faith might crumble, with many of those ashamed at their own cowardice and self-doubt, believing they are too weak to stand in such a situation, rising to the occasion and finding strength in the Lord to remain faithful and true. However, violence and death tend to break through the minds barriers, and a clear choice leaves no confusion. In such a situation, we place on the scale of our hearts Christ, and our fear of the oppressor, consequence, death, challenge or what have you. Whichever holds more weight would likely be our choice, with only God and the Spirit able to 'fix' the scale if we are open to His strength and support and one of the faithful, even if weak in the flesh.

But the culture is corrosive to our confidence in our faith in Christ.

Any time we might place faith on the scale to be compared with the things in our lives, we never dig deep enough into our hearts to reach it. The shallow concerns catch us up unaware and toss us against waves of confusion, self doubt and worry in a sea of hesitation.

We must resolve to be planted firmly in Christ. Resolve to push through the caution tape in our lives that keeps us bound in a room of religious noninterference and inaction, knowing that by God's strength, not only flimsy tape of wooden doors, entire walls can be taken down to free us from the place where we feel stuck.

While sounding simple, and rightly so, simple and easy are two different things, and some might find it easier or more difficult than others.

To strengthen the resolve we hold in our Christian faith and be assured in His will we must seek after Him. Pray, read and study the Bible, fill our lives and thoughts with Christ in whatever way we think is needed and good!

This still requires resolve, the making of a clear decision to center your life on Christ, but it is the 'starting choice' from which the rest of our faith is built and supported.

Normally I would have some kind of application for myself. A statement of what I can and desire to do with what God has revealed to me in this verse, but today is somewhat different. I want to thank God for this exhortation and reminder showing me that I have made the choice and that I am chasing after Him right now, fighting against the conditionings of society that 'normal Christianity' is not, should not and has never been RADICAL Christianity!

I am building my faith and preparing myself to face things great and small with the strength of my God in me and supporting me so that I will not in weakness and fear be stopped by the large stones or through inattentiveness tripped up by the little stones and feel some petty, ridicules, reprehensible shame against my loving brother and king, Jesus Christ, or the perfect words He spoke, whether for fear of sharing His gospel or embarrassment at the stares and opinions of my peers for following after Him.

If an application had to be given, I suppose it would be this:
That I not forget the need to continuously resolve myself with God's strength and encouragement, in the study of his word and prayer and continual preparation for even the smallest of trials faced in the world. That I never get trapped in the petty concerns of this world brought about by our perspective-less culture, and never feel any shame for Christ because of what others may think of my faith or His words.

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling,
And to present you faultless
Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
To God our Savior,
Who alone is wise,
Be glory and majesty,
Dominion and power,
Both now and forever.
Amen.

Mark 8:37

"Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? NKJV

Nothing of course.

But, isn't that the exchange we make every time we choose to sin or tell ourselves that, "It's not really a sin. . . There's nothing really wrong with what I'm doing. . . God wouldn't really have a problem with it. . ."

This verse can call to mind such noble thoughts like, "I wouldn't trade my soul for all the money in the world!" and contentment in our faith in Christ.

Yet I'd find much more interesting the person who reads this verse and asks the question, "If not for Christ, would I have made this trade yesterday when I decided not to go back and tell the cashier that she gave me an extra dollar in change?"

One rightly gleams from this section of verses that no matter how great the earthly gain or one's desire for a thing, it is not worth the soul. However, it is not only great things which we have the choice to exchange our souls for. Man makes this exchange with every little sin, great sin, accidental or unrealized sin, premeditated sin, material sin and thought formed sin, corporately of our sin and with each sin individually.

It is the love and sacrifice of Christ by which God nullifies our transactions of the past and refuses to acknowledge the transactions of our future.

Still, it is easy to get caught up in and bogged down by our own awareness of our short comings. At times when I realize I have sinned; or think of how I have sinned in the past; or think of how, short of a sudden and unavoidable death bringing me face to face with Christ, I will no doubt sin many many times to come, I feel almost sick. Frozen and trapped knowing how far I fall below the standards set by Christ and my inability to follow even His simplest of commands at times.

It is often difficult to remember or accept deep down that no matter what I may have done or will do, God chooses to see neither my sins nor my shortcomings, but looks and sees a "little Christ".

Even knowing this, on a personal level I still become disappointed in myself for not being 'good enough', for disobeying, for failing to meet God's will that I have accepted as my absolute standard, law and rule with Christ as my loving, forever King.

For disappointing Him.

I need to trust in His strength to not only free me from sin, but to "break the power of cancelled sin." To ask forgiveness when I have done wrong, and to take to the cross all my feelings of self doubt and discouragement so that I may continue on in life and doing His work despite my short comings.

I must take strength in Christ and not let myself stand still for personal loathing of weaknesses and failures and the sinful nature of my human condition when God has already decreed me a new creation and adopted me as a brother of Christ, transcending through fulfillment the accusations of law and making me righteous for all of eternity in Him.


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Also, I would like to make note of this weeks theme, Perseverance, and memory verse, which opened our Bible study that was held later Thursday night, the same day I wrote this devotional.

Luke 8:15

"But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience. NKJV

Studying the Bible and following after Christ; devoting all of myself to God and throwing myself at His feet; I must do these things and remain faithful to Him, but they won't magically produce the fruits of the Spirit in my life over night.
I'm not perfect, and, while God is working in me, He works in His own time for my good, knowing exactly where to take me. Even when I fail or fall or become discouraged, I MUST persevere!

I'm not perfect! I won't always follow God's perfect will and that's a sad thing, but He's not surprised and already had a plan for bringing me closer to Him which accounted for that screw up, and my next screw up, and my next screw up after that, and all the screw ups I'll make from now to the day I die! ((Still remembering, of course, Romans 6.))

I'm not perfect, and if I had to guess, I won't be for some time, but while I may not have all of my weaknesses, failings, short comings, etc, etc, etc straightened out just yet, I must trust in God and have faith as He continues to work in me by the Spirit. That while I may struggle with the failures of today, I am one of God's chosen. I am His child. He is and will continue to nurture me for good growth so long as I have the faith and trust in Him to be a good gardener. That I might one day grow into a great and beautiful plant bearing much healthy fruit for Him. That He has a plan for the fruits I will bear, and may use them in some way to feed and nurture His other children, just as He gathered other fruits and fed and nurtured me.

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling,
And to present you faultless
Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
To God our Savior,
Who alone is wise,
Be glory and majesty,
Dominion and power,
Both now and forever.
Amen.