I Want To Be First...

Scripture:
James 4:1-10 (NIV)

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

  You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: 

   “God opposes the proud
   but shows favor to the humble.” 

  Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. 

Devotional:

What is the biggest cause of wars?  Love and Money, these two things cause more arguments and wars than anything else.  What is the root of it all?  Simply selfishness, we want what someone else has.  They also want what they have.  That is why they have it.  So people fight and argue over it.  Self centered ambitions, we think of ourselves and what we want.  At one time my father had worked for my uncle in a business.  From time to time my father had owned one or two stores that my uncle sold to him.  One of my cousins thought that she should have all the stores.  In the end my father left the business and ended up working somewhere else.  How many confrontations can you account to the desire of money, land, love or lust?  

This boils down to a simple thing, being self centered.  James really nails it in James 4.  He states that when we are self seeking we are putting ourselves in league with the world not God.  Luke 6:13 (NIV):

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

If we devote ourselves to worldly things we will separate ourselves from God.  How can we overcome our selfish desires?  We need seek to be closer to God.  When we fill our hearts with Him there will be no room for worldly things.  We need to pray continuously 1 Thessalonians 5:17.  Another way is to start thinking of others before we think of ourselves.  The second commandment that Christ gave us, Matthew 22:39 (NIV) “And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”  In this we will think less of ourselves and more of God and others.  It may take time but by changing our focus to God we will think less of ourselves in a selfish manner.  The best place to start is by submitting ourselves to God’s will.  We need to submit to Him in all things.

Resumes & Biographies

Scripture:
John 1:1-14 (NIV)

  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 

  There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. 

  The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. 

  The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. 

Devotional:

Resumes, biographies, autobiographies are just some ways we tell others about ourselves.  We give descriptions of who we are in a variety of ways.  John 1 gives us information on two people.  We are given an account of who John the Baptist is and of course who Jesus is.  A short and simple description is all we need to tell us who Jesus is.  John 8:12 (NIV) states “…I am the light of the world…”  John the Baptist is stated as being a messenger.  John 1:7 “He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe.”  David is known as Acts 13:22 (NIV) “…I have found David son of Jesse, a man after God’s own heart…” Ephesians 1:1 Paul describes himself with the following introduction.  “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To God’s holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus:”

The list can go on and on with descriptions of various people in the Bible.  The question to ask is “who am I?”  How would you be described?  How do you describe yourself?  How you view yourself will impact how others view you.  I tend to be very critical or hard on myself. I find that I rate myself lower than what I really am.  For example I often think “who am I to write these devotions?”  My skills are not as good or I am not that good at this or that.  I down play myself, but God sees a different picture.  Who am I to write?  God says I am the person He wants to write these devotions.  God has graced me with the ability to learn quickly and figure things out.  This has in turn enabled me to become successful in the I.T. field.  Who am I?  How would I describe myself?  I must confess poorly when in truth I am a child of God.  I have a lot to offer.  God is with me and has enabled me.  Through Him I can do all things.  What about you?  What would your bio look like?  How do you rate yourself?  I challenge you to look at yourself through your own eyes and compare it to how God sees you.  You might be surprised at the results…

See You Soon...

Scripture:
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (NIV)

Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Devotional:

I remember in school learning that there was no such thing as cold.  My first thoughts were thinking that was funny.  After all when it was ten degrees outside I thought it was cold.  No, instead of cold existing there is only the absence of heat.  I also heard it said that there is no such thing as darkness; yep you guessed it only the absence of light.  Using this same logic I concluded that there is no such thing as death.  Yep that’s right death doesn’t exist.  After all once we “die” we go to heaven or hell.  We have “life” beyond the grave.  The question to answer is a simple one.  Are you going to spend eternity separated from God, or with God? 

When a loved one dies we can rest assured that we will not be separated from them for long.  Well as long as you both are on the same side of the proverbial coin.  Those that believe will be reunited in heaven.  We will spend all eternity together in God’s presence.  They are not lost to us.  It isn’t a goodbye forever.  It is simply I will see you later.  So Grandma, I know it’s been a while but I will see you again someday…

When I stumble

Scripture:
Galatians 5:16-18 (NASB)

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.  For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.

Devotional:

Have you ever found yourself really desiring something you know is sinful?  Something that you just know will give you satisfaction and enjoyment.  How many times have you battled with what seems to be the same sin over and over.  You just know better yet you find you keep doing it.  I know I am guilty as charged.  There are things in my life I just know I shouldn’t do or that I should be doing.  Yet it seems over and over I fail to do what is right.  The problem is that I forget that I am supposed to walk in the Spirit.  

At first it seems really difficult to say no to the habitual sin that plagues you.  You keep thinking you can’t overcome it.  Do you know you are right?  You cannot overcome it on your own.  That is why Christ sent us the Holy Spirit.  It is through Grace that we are enabled to overcome.  At first it might seem hard.  After time and reliance upon the Holy Spirit it does become easier.  Eventually it has moved out of your heart and life.  Don’t stress yourself should you stumble from time to time.  We will stumble and fall what is important is that we get back up and keep on going.  Look at a baby.  They cannot just get up and walk first attempt.  First they stand on their legs, while holding onto something.  As they build up strength in their legs they learn to take steps.  Eventually they will let go of what they are holding onto.  Sometimes they fall, other times they can stand there for a short time.  Before you know it, with many falls along the way, they are able to walk.  It didn’t happen overnight and they still tend to trip up once in a while.  Our walk with Christ is the same way.  We walk by faith but will stumble from time to time.  The important thing is to get back up and keep going.  When we do make a mistake we need to seek forgiveness.  Then knowing we are forgiven we keep going steadily moving closer to Christ.  We steadily grow in faith…