Devotions for Teens

[Soldier4Christ]

  A Cord of Three

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work:   If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!  Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?  Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. Ecclesiastes 4:9

Have you ever attempted to break a string made of three cords entwined together?  If you have, you realize how difficult, if not impossible to break it.  This is an excellent representation that Solomon uses as a description of how strong a truly bound relationship is.  It is also a wonderful example of what a good marriage is like when two individuals join together in marriage and bring God in as the third participant of that marriage.

One of the purposes of marriage is for the couple to join together or 'cleave' to one another, having left their siblings and parents behind when they become a man and wife.  They now have new obligations and responsibilities to each other that did not exist prior to the marriage.  This does not mean that they totally disengage from their families because they are now  married.  What it does mean is that a different kind of relationship has begun with your families. 

Rather than being subject to the spiritual guidance of her parents, the wife now comes under the spiritual guidance of her husband.  The husband in turn, comes under the authority of the church and God.  He has to stand before the Lord on the last day and be accountable for his wife's spiritual condition.  This is no small matter for the husband not to take quite seriously.  It points out just how important that verse in Ecclesiastes becomes in a marriage.   God absolutely has to be involved in the marriage for the husband to successfully carry out his duties and responsibilities that come along with the marriage vows.

Many couples like to read, or have read by someone else, those particular verses, during the course of the wedding ceremony.  While it's very nice to do that and it may sound very special to the families and invited guests, that reading, like other Bible verses, need to be taken a step further.  Once the wedding cake has been cut, the gifts collected, the guests have sauntered off and the bride and groom leave for their honeymoon, they need to remember to pack those verses and take them along with them, not only for the honeymoon, but for the entire marriage.

[Soldier4Christ]

  Meditate On These Things

Finally, brethern, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever tings are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy-meditate on these things. Philippians 4:8

In High School one day I heard  someone  say  something bad about me.  At least I took it as bad.  I was running for class president and I was  nervous.  I had been busy enough with all of my school work, my after school job and all of the campaigning I had to do.  I was stretched out and under a lot of pressure. 

Walking down the hall I heard someone yell my name and say, “Yeah, she’s trying to be Hillary Clinton, but she is a looser!.”  I couldn’t believe it.  My first reaction was to get angry.  I wanted to defend myself and yell, “I am not trying to be  anyone but me.”  Instead I said nothing, pretending I didn’t hear it.

But for the next hour in my Biology class I could not concentrate.  Those words burned like a fire in my gut as I relived them over and over.  It must have been obvious because my teacher asked if I was okay because I looked flushed.  I told her I was fine. 

I knew I had to get a hold of myself and stop letting those words that the devil used to ruin my day.  I remembered, “No weapon formed against me shall prosper, but every tongue that rises against me in judgement I shall condemn.  This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me.  Says the Lord.”  Isaiah 54:17

That scripture has helped me a lot.  Then I thumbed through my notebook  which I keep scriptures for emergencies like that.  And I read Philippians 4:4-9   “Rejoice in the Lord always.  Again I will say, rejoice!  5. Let your gentleness be known to all men.  The Lord is at hand. 6. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanks giving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.  9.  The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.”

After reading that, I couldn’t believe the peace I felt.  But I couldn’t just read those scriptures one time and think I would be over the hurt.  I had to “do!” what the word said.  I had to stop! thinking about the offense and start! thinking about things that were good and positive.  I had to do this on purpose and it wasn’t easy.  But I made the conscience decision each time the devil tried to get me to think the negative.  After a couple of days I had completely gotten over it and I was truly rejoicing when I won the election.  I became class president. 

[Soldier4Christ]

  The Unexpected

And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s and captiain of the guard. Genesis 37:38

The scripture is talking about Joseph. Before Joseph was sold into Egypt, he had to deal with some things. He was the favorite son and his brothers didn’t like it. They plot to kill him. He had a dream that his brothers and everyone else will be bowing to him and they hated him even more. They sold him to slavery and he end up with Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s and captain of the guard. 

When I think of this story, I think about Joseph and what was going through his mind at this time. Just imagine with me for a moment that you are the favorite in your family and your brother or sister hate you. They plot to kill you. They sell you to someone else. The unexpected. If Joseph would have known ahead of time what he would be face with, he would disagree with the road or path that he will be going down. Things happens in our lives unexpectedly. We question sometimes if we are connected to God? We even ask the question, why me. Why do I have to experience this hurt and pain? How did that tragedy happen to me? What did I do to deserve this? Just when we are enjoying life and things are going right for a change. The unexpected happens. Sickness or bills or problems enter our lives. Something comes to knock us off our feet and we continue to ask why me. We turn to God and pray then something else come to take our breath away. We can sometimes get tired of life and all the stuff that is going on in our lives. We say to ourselves, lord I didn’t do anything wrong. Why all this suffering? Why I got to go through this? The unexpected. Things in our lives will come unexpected. Like a death of a love one or a friend. An unexpected bill comes. A situation come into your life that is bigger than you. I want you to know that you can handle it for the lord is with you. You can deal with whatever your dealing with today. The unexpected is to make you strong. The good news about Joseph is that in the end inspite of everything, his dream came to pass and they were indeed bowing before him. The unexpected happens sometimes not in our favor but there are times when God will send an unexpected blessing into your life. We try to figure out what is on the mind of God. What is he thinking? We try to figure out what his next move in our lives will be. We don’t know but we can trust him. But don’t sleep with don’t know what will be next for you and me. You can’t prepare for the unexpected but with God walking with you, you will be able to handle it.

[Soldier4Christ]

  The Watch

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.  Matthew 23:27-28

If we claim to be a Christian, we need to be real to the bone.  We need to really live the life of a Christian.  It’s not enough to just “do” the right things when others are watching or knowing the right answers in Sunday school.  To be a real Christian, it takes you really walking the way of Jesus.  If I am a Christian on the inside, then I’ll be a Christian on the outside.  But if I’m only a Christian on the outside, then I am just an actor.  I am a hypocrite.

I have a dressy watch that looks great.  I always get complimented on how good it looks.  I can wear this watch when I want to really dress up.  I’ve worn it to interviews, important business meetings, while I was preaching and when I got married.  It’s a great watch.  About a month ago the battery died and I had to get a new one.  When the people in the store changed the battery, they must have messed something up because now it doesn’t keep time accurately any more.  I can set the time correctly, but in a couple of hours my watch will be way off.  It will either be really slow or several hours too fast.  While my watch looks really great, it’s worthless because it’s not doing it’s job.  I am going to try to take my watch to the shop to get fixed, but if they can’t fix it, I’ll have to throw it away and get a new one that will work.

Just like my watch I can look like a good Christian but I can still be worthless.  Christians can be faithful in going to church and still be completely worthless to God and in the world.  We can look good on the outside, we can do and say the right things when people are looking but if we aren’t really living the life on the inside, we aren’t doing our job. 

If you aren’t truly living your life for God, I want to encourage you to change that today.  God has a job for you right now that He wants you to live in to.  He is counting on you to listen to His voice and to live in to your calling.  If you aren’t really walking the walk, then listen to God today and start right now.  Where are you right now with God?  Can He count on you to keep pretty accurate time?  Or are you way off?  Are you usable to God right now?  If not, you can be.  Repent, turn from your sins and live in to His calling.  Can God count on you or will He need to get another Christian to do the job?  That answer is yours for a limited time. 

[Soldier4Christ]

  Being Connected

James 4:8  Draw nigh to God, and he will drawnigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye doubleminded.

Sometimes I wonder if I will ever have the opportunity to get DSL for my web access.  It seems that every time here lately that I go to log on whether here at the church, or at home something always happens that causes me to get disconnected.  Either it is my daughter, someone calls, or I just plain get logged off. Maybe when they lower the price of DSL I can have it both here at the church and at home. 

When we want to pursue intimacy with God and have a relationship with Him, we have to be careful that we are not finding ourselves like Internet access and being disconnected from Him because of sin that is goes un-confessed. When we want to connect with God, God always draws near to us, but catch what also James says here at the end of the verse, “Cleanse your hand sinners, and purify your hearts.” We are so busy wanting to come to God in prayer, but yet we forget to confess our sins and ask the Lord for forgiveness.   

God wants a close relationship with us, if He didn’t He would have never sent His Son to pay the price for that total access with Him. He wants us to come to Him with our sin, and ask for the forgiveness that only He can give. Let us draw near to God, and watch what God does in our lives by drawing near to us!   May God’s Grace Abound In You!

[Soldier4Christ]

  Oh Poor Me!

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! 2 Corinthians 9:15

I don’t know about you, but I am famous for complaining. I do believe if you look up "COMPLAIN" in the dictionary , a small picture of me will be there. Maybe I’m not that bad, but I do notice myself complaining a lot. I hate my job , hate my clothes, hate my hair cut, hate that I don’t have talent or coordination to play any type of athletic sport. The list continues. Are you like this sometimes? Do you find yourself complaining about stuff. Maybe your in a crabby mood, or just frustrated with different things. But we as humans are big complainers. I work in a restaurant so basically all I hear all day is people complain about this and that. I kid you not, the other day I waited on a table. I politely asked the ladies what they wanted to drink, and they ordered two waters. I came back set the drinks on the table, and one of the ladies took a sip of her water, made a face and looked at me and said, " I can’t drink this, the ice in my water is too cold." True story. I find it ama zing at the things some people find to complain about. Boggles my mind!!! I hate it when I find myself complaining about stupid little things. It bothers me when I hear people at my work complain, and then I find myself doing the same thing. WHY?

We take our lives for granted people. We do, we have so much, and yet still we find reason to complain. At the start of our day we should sit and think about all the things that we are thankful for. I , for one, have a zillion things to be thankful for. I have breathe in my lungs, I’m healthy , I have a family that loves me, the coolest little brothers and sisters, a guy that I’m head over heels in love with and that treats me wonderful, I have people I always know I can talk to, the Lord is in my life ..and the list continues. These are some things I don’t want to take for granted. I want to be constantly thankful for the things and people in my life. I wish I had someone walk around with me everyday and any time I start to complain, just smack me upside my head. I think we could all use that. Yea we do have bad days . We have days were we wake up on the wrong side of the bed, miss match socks, bad hair days, grabbed the wrong coffee at Starbucks, and spilled all over yourself and your car. We all go through those kind of days. But instead of getting all bent out of shape, we should see it as a time to worship. A time to thank God for the things we do have. Don’t’ take things you have for granted. Especially people in your life.. You got one life peeps, try to live it complaint free.

[Soldier4Christ]

  Myspace

Look! Here I stand at the door and knock. If you hear me calling and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal as friends.  Revelations 3:20

Most teenagers have their own websites on the Internet.  Do you have one?  Maybe it is MySpace, Facebook, Xanga, Bebo, or EC.  You could have more than one of these.  I have created sites on many of these pages and I have found that there are several basic features that each of them have in common.

First, you have a personalized background that showcases your basic interests.  You might have a section on your page that gives basic information about you, things for the general public to see.  There are pictures, quizzes, even games that you can put on your site to let others know more about you.  Then, you link to friends and post conversations that anyone connected to you can read.

When you post information on the Internet, you have to be extremely careful about what you put out.  There are several reasons for this, you don’t want predators to find you and you don’t want everyone in the world knowing every aspect of your life.  How often do we take these same principles and apply them to our walk with God.

Sometimes we can be shallow with God.  We only tell Him what we want Him to know.  How much deeper could our relationships be with Him if we would open up?  God already knows everything about us, but when we show Him that we want Him involved in our lives, He focuses in and helps us out. 

God is waiting for us to share our lives with Him.  He doesn’t want to be one of the hundreds of friends we are connected to, He wants to be our number one friend that we tell everything to.

[Soldier4Christ]

  Be Still

Be still and know that I am God  Psalm 46:10

Psalm 46:10 is one of the first verses I learned after I became a Christian.  It's one that my daughter Kimberly shared with me.  I had been going through a very unsettling period in my life, and reading Psalm 46 in it's entirety gave me a good deal of reassurance that God was taking good care of everything.  It let me know that I should not be spending a lot of my time uselessly thinking and fretting about that was going on in my life.

God knows all.  All is everything.  That includes the minutest detail in my life and yours.  We often wonder why this, why that, why is this happening to me God?  Well, duh, God already has the answer.  In fact, He had it before you were born!!  This verse goes hand in hand with another of my favorite verses, Matthew 6:31-33.  The last verses goes like this: Seek first the Kingdom of God and all else will be added to you."

What Matthew was telling us in these verses is: "listen up children, quit worrying about everything, God is in control, just focus on Him and He will give you whatever you need."  Now that doesn't mean you will get everything you want, as the verse says, "He will give you everything you need."  There is clearly a difference there.  Life is not like going to Burger King and "having it your way."  Our life is determined by God and what He knows is best for us.

Rest assured that God is up in heaven watching over every one of His children.  He has a plan for everyone of them, and it's His plan, not ours.  Our responsibility is to Be Still, and listen to what He wants us to do, where He wants us to be and what He wants us doing.  When we do this, then we receive what He wants for us.  "Be still and know that I am God"

[Soldier4Christ]

  Bored

Set your minds on things above, not on things on the earth. Colossians 3:2

There was a time in High School when  I got really bored.  Nothing I did could make me happy and I did keep trying. I went to movies, hung out with friends, ate lots of pizza bought a new shirt.  Still, I was bored and not happy.  I couldn�t figure out what was wrong with me.  I had all the things I needed, food, clothes, a home, a  car, friends, family.    It wasn�t that I was ungrateful for all of these things, because I was and I praised God for taking care of me.  I was grateful that I was saved and was going to heaven I belonged to a good church.  So what was my problem? Why wasn�t I  happy? 

I began to ask God to show me, to speak to me, I had an emptiness  I knew that only He could fill.  After praying about it,  I put it in His hands.  I trusted that He would speak to me and I would hear Him and understand.  So I went on about my day with hope in my heart that God loved me and He would answer my prayer and this made me feel much better.

That Sunday at church, the message I heard was �What is Your Purpose?�  My spirit leaped.  I heard, �My purpose is beyond making me happy. God has a bigger plan for me, Why am I here?  Do I really matter?  Am I  putting value in the wrong things?  My purpose is to please God.� 

�For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.� Ephesians 2:10

Now I  understood that I was so dissatisfied because I was unfulfilled, and I was unfulfilled because God had a plan for me, He had prepared something for me to do and the reason why I was bored was because I was filling my time with meaningless things when I really had an inner longing, a desire that I didn�t know I had,  to please and serve God.

There was a need in our church to help with the little kids. I knew little kids liked me and I was pretty good with them, my Mom always said I have a gift with children.  So I talked with my preacher about it and volunteered to help.  He told me that he believed I heard the �call of God� to work with these children. 

I was fulfilled after that.  I was busy and in the plan and will of God.  I learned that we were not created to serve ourselves, there is no true happiness in that, but we were created to serve Him.

What about you?  Do you get bored beyond the norm?  Ask God to show you, expect Him to answer, because He will.

[Soldier4Christ]

  Friendship Connection

Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and the your God my God...May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me. Ruth 1:16-17

The book of Ruth deals with Ruth and Naomi. Both of these ladies lost their husband and their families. In spite of everything that had happen in their lives they stayed with each other. The above verse clearly state how deep their friendship was. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay.

I want you to take a look at your life. Do you have a friendship like Ruth and Naomi or a Jonathan and David with anyone you are around? Take a look around your circle of friends. Can you point out a friend or friends that will be with you to the very end? Sometimes we have to question where our true friends are when trouble or disaster hit our lives and they do come. Your true friends are with you to the very end especially in the bad times. Ruth and Naomi was there for each other inspite of the things that they have lost. God forbid if you were to lose something that was close to you. Will any of your friends be there? We sometimes have to choose carefully who we call friend. Sometimes the word friend is not taken seriously. We call everybody friend. We all have a destination to reach and we will not have too many people with us while we are trying to get to that destination in God.

Another verse I want to share with you that got my attention is 1 John 2:19 and it say, They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. Sometimes we wonder why people leave us and what the reason for them exiting. God allow people to leave and never return because their time and season in your life is over. There will be people getting off at various exits in your life. Some will stay on for a long time but some will get off at the nearest exit. You have a destination to reach and if you continue along the road to your destination with certain people, you will end up at the wrong destination. Allow God to direct you. Naomi and Ruth had a Friendship Connection. They were connected. The only thing that can seperate them was death. That the kind of friendship you should have. Allow God to show you the right friends and who to let go from your life because your future depends on it.

[Soldier4Christ]

  Missing You

In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. John 14:2-3

Do you remember the last time you really missed someone?  The time you were going crazy because you wanted to see them so much?  Maybe it was one of your parents while they were on business, a friend while they were on vacation, or even your pet while you went to spend the week in Florida.  Whoever it was, they were important enough for you to care about them.

Did you know that God feels that way towards you?  He longs for the time you spend with Him.  When you pick up your Bible or bow your head in prayer, He takes notice.  He loves you and wants to hang out with you!

God even spends His time away from you thinking about you.  The Bible says that Jesus went to prepare a place in Heaven especially for you!  When you feel like no one cares, remember that God does, and He is so excited for the day when He finally gets to see you face to face.

[Soldier4Christ]

  Where God Works

Notice the way God does things; then fall into line. Don't fight the ways of God, for who can straighten out what he has made crooked? (Eccles. 7:13) NLT

   
An Elder at my church paraphrases this verse wonderfully. He says: "Look for where God is working and then join Him." I wish I had known that last year...

There is a student-led Bible Study at my school. I went to it last year for about four months, dragging my behind out of bed each morning a half-an-hour earlier than usual. Every week we came against the same conflict. There was no challenge, no excitement, and no real purpose. If I focused really hard on what was being said occasionally I could get something out of it. But, usually I just concentrated on the scripture and tried not to let the lesson bog me down. It's terrible to say of a Bible study isn't it?

I forced myself to endure this half-an-hour learning nothing and bored to death in a place where no one could sense the presence of God. I don't think it was the teacher; He's a great person. I don't think it was the lessons, I'll bet they could be made valuable. But, it was the lack of challenge to grow in God. Truthfully, no one was allowing God to work.

Meanwhile, I failed to look around my youth group. There were tons of people who truly thirsted for more knowledge of God. There were people waiting to be taught. Seeing the harvest waiting, the same elder who first showed me this principle encouraged me to pray about starting a Bible study myself.

I have to admit, I was quite nervous. I'd never done that sort of thing before. I didn't know how to teach, didn't know where to start, and didn't know who to invite. All I knew was that God was evidently working in the young girls in my youth group. So, I took up the challenge. Today I lead a discipleship group that God is actively working in. I went from a lack of challenge to abundant challenge, even as the leader. I think God speaks to me more than anyone! Instead of wasting my time where religion is stale, I am gaining joy from true growth.

[Soldier4Christ]

  Who Do You Think You Are?

A man’s pride beings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor. Proverbs 29:23

Pride. A word i hate. I have been learning that pride destroys. Sometimes I feel like pride in Christians is the worst kind. I have grown up my whole life around Christians and people who call themselves Christians. And through my whole life I have seen that pride and faith in the Lord do not mix well. Some people go by the "Saved by grace" theory. Where they think that no matter what they are saved by grace, so they can do pretty much anything they want. They can hang out with the wrong crowd, drink smoke and so on, and it wouldn't matter because they are saved by grace. Being saved by grace doesn't give you a hall - pass in life. It doesn't give you the right to excuse what you do. Yes you are saved by the grace and mercy of God, and yes you will sin. But living a life that doesn't reflect God, is taking that gift of grace and kicking it to the ground. Some Christians live by the "Impressing people with how spiritual I am" theory. This kind of pride is the kind where you basically flaunt your spirituality. Walking around thinking your amazing because you have memorized hundreds of different Bible verses, and have helped others out at your church, and how big of a tithe you gave at your church that week. When you do things for the Lord you shouldn't parade your good deeds around like you deserve something, you do things for the Lord without expecting anything in return. The other type of pride is the "I'm better than anyone so I judge whoever i want." This pride is the type where a person feels like they are at liberty to judge others. Judging other peoples flaws and mistakes. Thinking they have a right to point out their sins, and judge on why they shouldn't be like that. Have you ever stopped to think that maybe while your judging other people's flaws, that someone is judging you? I know some people that think that no matter what they do or how big of a sin they commit they should be excused for it. That they have said they were sorry and everybody should move on. This to me is a very prideful attitude. Sometimes our sin can hurt others so badly that just saying sorry wont fix it. You have to show with your actions and your words that you have humbled yourself. That you realize that you are a speck of dirt on Gods beautiful earth. Your not perfect. Everyone has fallen short of God's expectations. No one is perfect. NO matter how many good things you do , no matter how many times a week you go to church and pray, you are not perfect.

Pride is a killer , people. The Bible says we can't come to God unless we humble ourselves like little children. We cant become God's chosen child if we are so busy putting ourselves on a pedestal. We also need to be careful that we don't give others false pride in themselves, yes we need to encourage one another, but we shouldn't praise this person, and put them up so high that when they do disappoint us we aren't completely broken and crushed. We are all human. We will all make mistakes, just when you do make mistakes show people that you are sorry for them. Dont put yourself up to be better then others, and excuse your sin for being no big deal.

Always keep in mind that those who put themselves up , will be the ones to fall the hardest.

[Soldier4Christ]

  Rocks: In Our Way or PART of Our Way?



As a minister, it is very easy to get discouraged when we don't see God working around us or what we perceive God should be doing around us.  A Sr. Minister wants the congregation to grow.  As a youth minister, I want the youth group to grow.  As a body, we want the church to grow.  When we don't see it happening, we think something is wrong.  I've personally even made the comment "I don't understand what is going on, this is a great church."  I was reminded of a perfect sermon illustration during lunch today that talks about this very thing, so if you are feeling a little discouraged or worn down then read on.

There is a story of a weak sickly man. The man was so sick and he could not afford going to town to the doctor.  The man lived in the deep back woods in an old log cabin, his condition seemed to grow worse.  Out in front of his cabin was a huge boulder.  The rock was massive in front of his place. One night in a very real vision, God told him to go out there and push the huge rock all day long, day after day.  The man got up early in the morning, and with great excitement he pushed the rock until lunch, then he rested a while and pushed the rock until supper time.  The man loved pushing against the rock, it gave him meaning.  The dream was so real that it was with great excitement he pushed against the rock. Day after day he pushed. Day rolled into week, and week into months, he faithfully pushed against the rock.

After 8 months of pushing the rock, the weak sickly man was getting tired of pushing the rock so much, in his tiredness he started to doubt his dream. So one day he measured from his porch to the rock, and after daily pushing the rock, he would measure to see how much he had moved the rock. After two weeks of pushing and measuring, he realized he had not moved the boulder not a 1/32 of an inch? As a matter of fact, the
boulder was in the same place as when he started. The man was so disappointed, he thought the dream was so special and now after 9 months he saw his work had accomplished nothing, he was tired and his dream seemed dashed upon the rock.

The man sat on his porch and cried and cried, he had invested many hundred hours into nothing. Nothing, it was all nothing! As the sun was sitting in the west, Jesus came and sat down next to the man as he cried. Jesus said, "Son, why are you crying?" The man replied, "Lord, You know how sick and weak I am, and then this dumb dream gave me a false hope and I have pushed with all that was within me for over 9 months, and that dumb old rock is right where it was when I started."  Jesus was kind and said to him, "I never told you to move the rock, I told you to push against the rock." The man replied, "Yes, Sir, that was the dream." Jesus told the man to step in front of the mirror and look at himself. As an act of obedience the man stepped in front of a mirror and looked at himself.  The man was amazed, he had been so sickly and weak and what he saw in the mirror was a strong muscular man. The man realized that he had not been coughing all night. The man started thinking of how well he felt for several months and the strength that he had built by pushing on the rock.  Then the man realized, that the plan of God was not for the rock, but for the man.

So, I suggest to you today, that God is building people. God is building churches. The storms, the trials, the heartaches, the disappointments, are all but part of the process. We should never use people to build the church, we must use the church to build people. Don't start measuring your success, trust the God that will take the process, and build His people. God is stretching you, God is growing you! Understand the plan! Trust His Hands!

Since I don't want to ruin a great illustration, I will add nothing except to say that "God is very much alive and very much at work in you.

[Soldier4Christ]

  In All Things

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:17

Have you ever given much, if any thought, as to how you exhibit your life to others from one day to the next?  Does the verse from Colossians strike you in any particular way?  It is especially important for Christians to be living a life that pleases the Father and doing what brings him glory.  When you stop and consider what God has done for us, through the sacrifice of his only son on the cross, doesn't that make you realize how blessed you truly are?

It is so easy for Americans to take all that we have for granted.  We are so used to living a life so full of abundance, we almost forget what it is like to truly have a need for a really basic item.  Such was the case for the Colossians.  Paul saw that they had forgotten the source of all their blessings.   So, instead of living in a God honoring way, they were living like the heathens they were before Paul introduced them to Jesus.

This is an important lesson for Christians to learn, from the mistakes of those early Christians before us.  God wants us to live in a way that is honoring and pleasing to him.  He wants us to be examples out in the world of goodness, love, kindheartedness and to extend His grace to all who injure us, either physically or emotionally.  As Paul has expressed, God's grace is sufficient for all of us to do just that. 2 Corinthians 12:9

I challenge you today, to go out into the world with a single purpose in mind; to do everything to God's glory.  Whether it be work, or play or just having lunch with a friend, do it all in the name of Jesus, your savior, protector, provider and teacher.  Be a witness in a fallen world to those around you who are broken, poor in spirit, perhaps spiritually hungry for something more than what they have now.  God will honor your efforts, and in the process you will become more like Jesus, the truest and most important goal of each and every Christian.