Monday, May 14, 2012

Weekly Devotional Tidbits May 7-14, 2012




The Word for You Today

1.  “Don’t Get Bitter”
  • Watch that no…bitterness grows up.” (Heb 12:15)
  • We must look at people with their potential, not their problems.
  • God’s grace can change people.
  • Don’t rehearse your past…God is doing a new thing.

2.  “Are You a ‘Phillip’?”
  • And they chose…Phillip.  (Acts 6:5)
  • You must have the ability to be Spirit led.
  • In order to lead others, you must first be led of God.
  • You must know how to build a strong family.

3.  “Raising Secure Kids in an Insecure World”
  • I prayed for this child.  (I Sam 1:27)
  • Surrender them to the Lord.
  • Live with hope, not wishful thinking.
  • Encourage responsibility.
  • Pray often, and with purpose.
  • Demonstrate faith in God.

4.  “Know Your Enemy”
  • Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.  (2 Tim 2:13)
  • Will you hold up or fold up?
  • Satan attacks from without…do no let a negative culture suck you in…seek to change it.
  • There is another power within me that is at war with my mind.  Rom 7:23)
  • satan attacks from within…use prayer and God’s Word to strengthen you against his attacks.

Spiritual Gems from the Greek

1.   Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.  (Heb 10:23)
  • We must get into God’s Word deeply so that our own hearts come into alignment with it.
  • True confession comes from the heart before it is spoken.
  • Our goal should be to see things, hear things, and feel things the same as God sees, hears, and feels.

2.  A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but must be kind to everyone, be able to teach, and be patient with difficult people.  (2 Tim 2:24)
  • We must correct people with compassion and love.

3.  Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.  (Phil 4:7)
  • The mind is the control center which determines the condition of one’s life.
  • The peace of God is so much higher and deeper and more profound than we can imagine.
  • God’s peace guards our minds against anxiety and negative emotions if we allow Him to be in control, and not the enemy.
  • With God’s peace we can remain calm, even in difficult situations.

4.  Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.  (I Peter 5:7)
  • We are to throw (cast) all of our cares on the shoulders of Jesus, for he alone can handle the weight of them.
  • Our worries and cares are whatever causes us stress…the human body is not designed to handle stress, but Jesus can.
  • Jesus walks beside us, and wants to free us from the burdens we carry.

5.  One day Jesus said to his disciples, “There will always be temptations to sin, but what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting!”  (Luke 17:1)
  • We need to communicate in such a way as to not offend others.
  • When there is misunderstanding or offense, we need to do whatever we can to restore the relationship.
  • Be mature, and ask for forgiveness.
  • We must walk in the Spirit and speak the love of Jesus, and not let satan get a foothold in any relationship.

6  Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations,[a] baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  (Matt 28:19)
  • Baptism symbolizes being dipped in the blood of Jesus and buried, then being raised with Him in new life…transformed to be like Jesus.

7.   He must manage his own family well, having children who respect and obey him.  (I Tim 3:4)
  • Children must be trained to respect authority (parents) at home to prepare them to respect future authority (teachers, employers).
  • Start with daily disciplines…something they are expected to do each day, such as make their bed, personal grooming, dress themselves neatly, keep their room clean, pick up their dishes after they eat.
  • Give rewards for good performance, and penalize bad performance.



No comments: