Wednesday Morning Devotional

Blessed (Part 5)

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. — Matthew 5:7

Here we are at the 5^th beatitude.  If you are progressing along and have made it to where you absolutely WANT to do what is right no matter what the cost is to you, welcome to the next step in that progression.  In this step, you have to do something hard…you have to choose mercy.  Remember, just because I am writing these, does not mean that I am a master at these.  In fact, right now, there is something that I have to make right in a relationship because I didn’t choose mercy.  I will have made that right by the time that you actually read this WMD (hopefully).  So, here we go…

I think it is interesting that so many athletic teams still say the Lord’s Prayer before they play their games.  Not that I am against this at all.  It is just that during that prayer there is one line that I know people don’t think about.  It goes “forgive us our sins AS we forgive those who sin against us.”  During the Lord’s Prayer, we ask God to forgive us in the same way we forgive others.  I have had teams that I have coached say this prayer before every game.  Then, I have watched most of them be ridiculously unforgiving toward others.  This is very difficult to do.  Jesus plainly teaches me in this one…I will obtain mercy to the same degree that I show mercy to others.

I recently heard a sermon where the pastor was talking about how everyone expects their loved ones to be in heaven when they die.  We only see R.I.P.  Or we hear “they are in a better place.”  Then, the pastor raised this question “what if that recently deceased person had unforgiveness in their heart towards ONE other person?”  It immediately sent me on a heart search through the past and present.  What if I will be shown mercy in exact proportion to the one person I have shown the least amount of mercy?

Something in me wants to just say “awww, Jesus would never do that to me…it can’t be THAT big of a deal!”  Then again, I have read Matthew 18:23-35.  A guy owed the king 10,000 talents.  A talent is equal to 20 years worth of wages.  If you have a job, think about the amount of money that you would expect to make in 20 years.  Now multiply that by 10,000! If a person makes $30,000 a year, that would be 30,000 x 20 x 10,000, which equals 6,000,000,000!  This guy asked the king for MERCY, and the king forgave his debt.  Well, after he received forgiveness for the debt, he saw a dude that owed him money.  The amount of money that was owed to him was 200 denarii.  I have heard preachers say this was some small amount, but it’s not really that small, though compared to 6 billion…it is pretty small.  The amount was worth 200 days worth of wages.  So, the same $30,000 per year comes to about   $120 per day assuming you work for 250 days each year.  Thus.  $120 x 200 = $24,000.  When he saw the guy, he demanded that payment be made.  When they guy used the same words that HE used on the king, he refused to be merciful.  Of course, that brought out all the tattle tales and word got back to the king.  The king was furious with the guy and threw him in prison.  Now, look at verse 35: “This is how my heavenly father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

Now, who owes you?  Who is it that you just can’t stand?  Maybe they have wronged you and they deserve to PAY!  Maybe you are harboring bitter feelings towards them still.  What are you going to do about it?

For me, I have made so many promises to God that I haven’t kept…I HAVE to forgive and forget when people don’t keep their promises to me.

I have told God that I would do something…then NOT gone and done it.  I HAVE to forgive those who don’t do what they said they would do for me.

When I haven’t always given my best to the Lord, He has faithfully continued to give His best to me!  So, even though I have students who refuse to give me their best, I continue to give them my best because God has done so for me.

Even though I go out to eat and sometimes receive horrible service, I have to leave a good tip…God has always continued to tip me well even when I haven’t given Him good service.

Yes, people have done me wrong…I choose to forgive.  Not because I am so wonderfully full of grace…but because I have been continuously forgiven when I have done HIM wrong!

I must be merciful because when I stand before Him…I want mercy.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Later

Adam

Blessed (Part 4)

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be filled.  — Matthew 5:6

So far, a person has realized they are poor in spirit and have accessed the kingdom of heaven.  They have mourned their old lifestyle and have been comforted.  They have even begun to demonstrate self-control through this process of becoming meek.  Now comes what I feel is the best part that I have experienced so far in my Christian experience…you go from HAVING to do the right thing, to WANTING to do the right thing.  You actually begin to hunger and thirst after righteousness.  When you do this, God fills you.  You begin to feel His awesome presence.  I can’t tell you how this worked or will work for you, but I can tell you how it worked (and still works) for me.

Today, I can’t believe I used to crave the stuff I used to crave.  I used to crave the next rock concert that came to town.  I used to live for those moments driving down the road blasting the latest (or the oldest) AC/DC CD (or was it cassette tape?)  I thought I was the MAN!  I used to crave going home, cranking up my Marshall stack, tuning my Les Paul and pretending I was Ace Frehley in front of thousands.  Every once in a while, I would crave the next time I got to play guitar in front of 10 people at a party our band threw ourselves.  I read my guitar magazines cover to cover as soon as they came in the mail.  I hungered and thirsted for anything and everything to do with music and the lifestyle, especially the girls that came along with it.  I drank, I cussed, and I did whatever I could to fit in with the wrong people.  That was the road that I was on…my “Highway to Hell.”

Fortunately, for me, I asked Christ in my life when I was 16.  I gained access to the Kingdom of Heaven.  Unfortunately, I would do this awful “one foot in the world, one foot in the church” thing for the next several years.  I had a nagging “this is wrong” feeling that would just never EVER go away!  Until…one day it did.  It worried me.  I was scared.  I thought about how Sampson lived his own way instead of God’s way.  Then, there was that moment that Sampson “did not know that the Lord had left him.”  (Judges 16:20)  The only difference between me and Sampson was the fact that I was very aware.

There would be three major moments for me after that.  The first was a kneel down beside my bed where I told God I was sorry for ignoring Him for the past several years.  God was very clear:  “Either live for me…or live for the world.  Choose one…forsake the other.”  I told Him “I choose YOU!”  But, I didn’t really know where to start.  That was moment one.

Moment two came that same week when I got an invitation in the mail to go to a revival.  It was one of those really hard core Church of God meetings.  I felt so far away from God and was still wondering if He was “done” with me.  Then, the choir sang this chorus about a little lost lamb:  “There were ninety and nine…but He left the fold to find…one little lost lamb and here I am.”  Even typing this right now…I feel Him now like I felt Him then.  He hadn’t left me.  That was moment two.

Moment three would come several years later.  Even though I had more of God in my life, I was still really selfish.  Madonna and I were both living in a material world…and I was a material girl (well…dude anyway)   I still had my old music collection, but sprinkled in some Christian music on top of it.  I was trying to add Christ to my life instead of making Christ the center of my life.  I was seriously beginning to wonder if I had made the right choice by choosing God (Is the devil good at what he does or what?)  My old band was starting to get some pretty serious success and there was a part of me that wanted to be a part of that.  I know my wife was worried.  It couldn’t have been a good feeling watching your husband look back on a burning Sodom.  Then…the moment of moments.   We visited a mega-church in Georgia.  One of the worship leaders sang “Hallelujah, thank you Jesus!  Lord you’re worthy…of all the glory…all the honor…and all the praise!”  God must have opened a little bit of Heaven because it was majestic!  For a moment, I saw Him with my spiritual eyes!  He filled me up.  I heard him plainly “Adam, you chose me!  Do you think I will rip you off?”  I had tears rolling down my cheeks.  It was just the sweetest presence of the Holy Spirit.  No longer did I have to TRY to live right…I WANTED to!  Yes, there were still plenty of weeds in me that needed pulling…but, at that moment, I began to hunger and thirst after righteousness.

Today, I don’t have to read my Bible…I crave it.  Today, I don’t have to listen to music that honors the Lord…I crave it.  I used to could go weeks or even months without talking to my Heavenly Father…not any more.  If I go more than a few days and haven’t connected with Him…I’m going for a drive, for a walk, or to a prayer closet.  I just miss Him so much.

How long has it been since you have felt that thick, sweet presence of the Holy Spirit?  Do you miss Him?  Do you hunger and thirst to do the things that bring His presence?

Who do you think is waiting on who?

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

Later

Adam

Blessed (part 3)

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.  — Matthew 5:5

“Meek” is kind of a tough one.  I am not a Bible scholar or anything, but the Greek word that we have replaced with “meek” is “praus” (pronounced PRAH – OOSE).  Meek, in our dictionary talks about being deficient in spirit and courage.  It sounds like “wimp” to me.  There is no way Jesus is talking about being a wimp.  However, “praus” is more of a reliance on God and accepting His will in EVERY circumstance.  It is power under control.  It is power submitting itself to God.  Hopefully, I can make this make sense in the next few paragraphs.

My basketball coach used to wear a t-shirt to practice that said “the meek will inherit the Earth,” then on the back it said “but they won’t get the ball!”  Once again, this implies that “meek” is “weak.”  When Jesus was being arrested in John 18 He was in perfect control.  He was very submissive, He knew that this was the will of the Father because He had just prayed 3 times for an alternate ending.  Peter, on the other hand, went sword slinging.  He cut off a soldier’s ear with his sword.  Then, Jesus says probably my favorite line in the whole Bible and gives us a perfect picture of meekness (found in Matthew 26).  He says “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will not at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?”  In the Salem Standard Version it says “If I wanted to…I could lay the smack down on all these people trying to hurt me…but I‘m choosing not to!”

The reason I am writing this little series is because I believe that the beatitudes are a process that every true believer goes through.  First, you realize you are poor in spirit and gain access to the kingdom of God.  Second, you mourn your old way of life, then you are comforted.  Next, is this process in which you become meek.

I have lots of power over certain people in my life.  Being a teacher, I have 70 students that I have a great deal of power over.  However, I choose to be a servant to my students.  I want to serve them in hopes that they will choose to serve me back.  I have this same power over my two kids and my wife.  Physically, I could harm them all.  However, there is no way I am going to lord that power over them, I choose to serve them…once again, in hopes that they will want to serve me back.  Now, before you think I am perfect in meekness…believe me, I am still working on this one.  In fact, I don’t believe you can work on it.  I believe it is simply given to you the more you submit to the Lord and are filled with His Spirit.

Meek people will inherit the Earth.  In God’s coming kingdom, it will be governed by meek people who have submitted themselves to God.  This is directly opposite of the arrogance that is displayed by the leaders of today.  One day, the meek will inherit the earth, and all of creation will be glad to submit themselves to this new authority.

So, do you still get angry in a long, slow moving line where they have 20 registers but only two of them open?  Do you still want to fight when the person pulls out in front of you and goes 20 m.p.h.?  Do you still want to lash back out when someone “says something” to you?  If you do, you need to pray.  Ask God to help you get in control of your emotions.  Learn to pray in the long line.  Learn to pray for the person that just pulled out in front of you.  Once again, if you think I am able to do this every time…you are crazy!  However, there are those occasions that I purposefully decide beforehand that I will choose meekness.  Absolutely every time I have chosen meekness…

I have been blessed!  Just like Matthew 5:5 said I would be.

Later

Adam

Blessed ( Part 2)

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.  — Matthew 5:4

Mourn what?  When a loved one dies, does this mean we can be comforted because they are “in a better place?”  I doubt it, because not everyone who dies goes to a better place.  In fact, Jesus says just two chapters later that “many” are on the road that leads to destruction and only a “few” are on the narrow road that leads to life.  This is an interesting beatitude.

Before anybody can understand it, they must have first experienced the first beatitude.  They must have realized that they are “poor in spirit,” for then, and only then is “theirs the kingdom of heaven.”  If you try to come to Christ any other way, you do not have access to the kingdom of heaven.  At some point in your life, you must repent of your sins and turn to Him.  If you have done that, you have access to the kingdom heaven.  You only have access, you are by no means “done.“  You have simply begun the lifelong process of purification.  The next step is to mourn, but it does not remain mournful…Jesus does comfort you.  So, how does this work?

For me, it was about 15 year process after I got saved that I truly mourned.  Think about this:  I had access to the kingdom of heaven because I really did receive Christ as a teenager.  One of my really good friends bought me a Bible with my name on it.  It took me 5 years to open it.  I was a virgin when I got saved…I wasn‘t when I got married.  I never even considered going to school (as a student or a teacher) and working “as unto the Lord,” I just trudged through my day trying to get to the part where I could do what I wanted.  I never considered giving money to God’s work.  There were a lot of Christian principles that I just ignored because I still had so much of myself in me.

Even today, I go back in my mind and think about how stupid and selfish I lived my life.  This is not as an unbeliever…but a believer who had supposedly placed his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.  I mourn those wasted days.  But, here is the cool thing:  Jesus will not let me wallow in the fact that I messed it all up.  He comforts me and only encourages me to surrender my life to Him today…every day.  He reminds me of how together we have conquered so many sins.  He shows me where I am now compared to where I was.  He still reminds me that I have a long way to go, but with Him, and with Him only will I get there.

Maybe you are saved, but still wasting enormous amounts of time.  Maybe reading this has opened your eyes to the fact that you are still living a life that denies Christ even though you know He is in your heart.  Maybe it’s time to dust off the Word of God and just spend some time with Him.  Maybe it’s time to put on your favorite praise and worship music and just tap into his holiness.  Yes, you will feel very unworthy, very guilty, and very small…this still happens to me.  But, He will do for you what He does for me…

He will comfort you.

Later

Adam

Blessed

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.”  — Matthew 5:3

Jesus, for the first time has a crowd gathered around Him.  He is ready to start His first year of teaching.  There might have been a buzz about some of the cool stuff He has already done, but for the most part Jesus is about to speak to a bunch of curious people.  I can‘t help but think of what I would have said.  I probably would have shown them my Clemson diploma and said “hey, I’m a certified teacher so listen to me.”  Well, I hope I wouldn’t have been that pathetic.  Anyway, Jesus says something that I think is and would have been confusing.  The first words out of His mouth are “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.  So, that begs the question…what does it mean to be “poor in spirit”?  Before reading on, what do you think it means?

When I ask people this question, I usually get answers like “people that are sad,” or “people that don’t have anything.”  We take the words “poor in spirit” and take it to mean “poor financially.“  If this is the case, the kingdom of Heaven only belongs to sad people who are broke.  No way that is the case.

When I was searching for the answer, the words “in spirit” finally became the focus of my attention.  In our earthly minds, we may think that we have finances that God wants (as if He needs our share of the money that is ALL His anyway).  We may give money and think that we are really doing something for God.  We may give one hour a week on Sunday and think that we are giving God our time.  We may do the occasional “good deed” and think that we are right with God because of our own righteousness.  All of these things are spiritual things that we can do.  But, and this is a big but, if you do these things thinking that the kingdom of Heaven is yours BECAUSE of them, you are the exact opposite of “poor in spirit” you are “puffed up” in spirit, or “prideful” in spirit.  Yet, Jesus says “blessed are the POOR in spirit.”  So, once again, what does that mean?

It means that the kingdom of Heaven belongs to people who realize that they have absolutely NOTHING spiritual to offer God.  In spirit, they know that they are dead.  They realize that the only thing they really have to offer is the LIFE that God breathed into them in the first place.  Though I didn’t realize it at the time, when I received Christ as a 16 year old teenager, the reason I asked Him into my heart was because He IS life.  I was dead, but upon surrendering my life to Him, I became alive (maybe that‘s why it‘s called “born again“).  I was totally poor in spirit with nothing to offer Him.  Yet, when I realized I was poor in spirit and asked Him to come into my heart, He gave me access to the kingdom of Heaven.  Today, I do give, I do go to church, and I do attempt to do good things, but not so that I can go to Heaven.  I do these things because I was dead…

But now I live!  Christ now lives in me!

Does He live in you?

Later

Adam

One in Three Million One Hundred Forty Thousand

“For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”  — Genesis 18:32

I love this dramatic conversation between The Lord and Abraham.  The Lord told Abraham that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were about to be destroyed because of their wickedness.  Abraham immediately went to work.  He said “Lord, if there are 50 righteous will you spare it?”  The Lord said “yes.”  Abraham proceeded to press his luck and went to 45, then 40, then 30, then 20, then finally stopped at 10.  The Lord said “for the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”

Surely, there would be 10 righteous people that feared the Lord in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah…right?  Wrong!  Turns out there were only 3…there should have been 4, but Lot’s wife just couldn’t let go of the place in her heart.  She was turned into a pillar of salt for “looking back.”  This makes me absolutely thank the Lord because there were a few years that I felt like I got ripped off trying to live this new Christian life and looked back at my old group of friends and longed to go back to that group.  I should have been turned into salt during that time, but now it just makes me love Him all the more.  Luke 17:32 says “Remember Lot’s wife.”  Every once in a while, I do remember her.  I think of what God brought me out of and the new life He gave me.  What else can I do but say “I love you, Lord!”

Now, I looked up the population of those two ancient cities.  The population appears to have been between 600 and 1200 people.  For the sake of easy math, I’m going to say the population was 1,000 people.  This means that when Abraham started his negotiations with God, he started with 50 out of 1,000 people, or 5% of the population.  “Lord, if 5% of the population is righteous, will you destroy it?”  Then, it went to 4.5%, then 4%, then 3%, then 2%, then all the way down to 1%.  Think about that.  God said that He would not destroy the land if ONE PERCENT of the population is righteous.

It is no secret that America is at a critical point in history.  We recently celebrated our 236^th birthday as a nation.  There is very little doubt that we are under the preliminary stages of judgment.  The majority of the population is greedy, selfish, violent, lazy, and highly immoral…at least according to the Bible’s standard of morality.    We are approaching a 16 trillion dollar national debt.  To get just a little perspective on that…16 trillion seconds ago was 507, 356 YEARS ago!!! So, if someone would just be willing to give a dollar per second to the government, the debt will be paid off in about a half a million years…except for the fact we are continuously racking up even more debt.  The point is…there will be a breaking point.  God’s judgment has come and is coming to a nation that has forsaken Him.  (for an UNBELIEVABLE read on this, read “The Harbinger” by Jonathan Cahn)

In the school that I teach, I asked some kids “How many people in this school REALLY live out Christianity? Not just say they are Christians…but DO Christianity?”  The average answer was 6 people.  That means in our little school about 6 out of 300 really live out the Christian life.  Now, there might be more…but if other people do not perceive you as being a Christian, does it really matter?  I dare you to ask someone fairly close to you this question:  “What do you see in me that would make you think I don’t actually believe what I say I believe?”  Let me tell you about a time that I did it.

I had a kid in my class that gave me the hardest time.  He was ridiculously lazy, was constantly getting into trouble, constantly making excuses…you know the deal.  I talked to him after school one day.  For whatever reason, even though it had nothing to do with our conversation, he just blurted out of nowhere “people say they are Christians…but they ain’t.”  This caught me off guard, but I went ahead and took this opportunity.  I said “well, I’m a Christian…do you think I am?”  He quickly said “No!”  Yes…this stung quite a bit.  I said “What have I done, or what do I do?”  He told me “You told us at the beginning of the year that you would start over brand new with us every single school day.  You said you wouldn’t hold the things we did the previous day over our heads.”  (I did say that)  He went on to say “but ever since I said (something that would make this WMD ridiculously long if I explained it), you have continuously thrown it back in my face.”  I was absolutely bombed with conviction.  I did the only thing I knew to do.  I said “well, here is something else that real Christians do.  When they realize they are wrong…they apologize and try to make things right.  Dude…I’m sorry.  You are 100% correct and I will stop as of right now.  Will you forgive me?”  I’ll never forget the look on his face.  He couldn’t believe that a teacher was asking for his forgiveness.  To make a long story short, our relationship in class got much, much better, and he ended up giving his life to the Lord!

In the school that I teach, 6 out of 300 is 2% of the population.  We have such a small school that there is constant talk of us being shut down and moving our population to other schools.  I like to constantly remind God…If just 1%, if just 3 out of 300 in this school really love and serve you…will you spare it?

In my country, there are currently 314 million people.  Are there currently 3,140,000 people in love and on fire for the Lord Jesus Christ?  That would be 1 % of the population.  Now, there are well over this many people who say they are Christians.  But what is that actual number of people who have accepted God, and then taken that ridiculously hard step of actually following Him?

Are you one of the 3,140,000?

Later

Adam

A Living Sacrifice

Romans 12:1

Genesis 3:7

Genesis 4:3

When we don’t give our best to God, whether it be our work, money, time…whatever, it is a lame sacrifice.  The first verse in Romans 12 says our “spiritual act of worship” is to present our bodies as “living sacrifices”.  Isn’t “living sacrifice” one of those oxymorons?  It just doesn’t make a lot of sense.  In the old testament, to be made right with God meant something had to DIE!    How can something be living…and dead at the same time?

Remember how Adam and Eve tried to “cover” their sin?  They used fig leaves.  When God came, they hid from Him because they were ashamed.  The sacrifice that was required to cover their shame did not come from a fig leaf, it came from a lamb.  Imagine when the first two people on the planet watched God Himself slay a lamb, rip it’s skin off, and use the skin to cover them.  THAT had to be brutal to watch.  They KNEW then that they messed up BIG time!

Remember when Cain killed Abel?  What was the deal there?  Abel brought the blood sacrifice of a lamb.  Cain gave the lame sacrifice of some grain.  Just like the fig leaves, the grain wasn’t acceptable, at least that particular sacrifice didn‘t MEAN anything to Cain, so certainly didn‘t mean anything to God.  To be acceptable and pleasing to Him…it required a much greater sacrifice!

We, however, do not have to kill animals anymore (Thank GOD!) to worship Him.  However, presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice does mean that we do have to kill some things in our lives.  Before I go there, I want you to think about some things first.

Do you remember when you gave your life to God?  Do you remember what it felt like when you opened your eyes as a new creation in Him?  If you don’t, you need to make today the day of your salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2)  God sacrificed his own Son, the ultimate Lamb, so that we may be forgiven by simply asking Him (John 3:16)  He gave us HIS best, therefore, we should give Him OUR best!

Now, a tough question.  What have you given up for God since you gave your life to Him?  Is it a lamb-like sacrifice?   Or, is it just a plant-like sacrifice?  If you think that just attending church on Sundays (or Saturdays for some) and Wednesdays is scoring you major points…sorry, that’s plant-like.  Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE church, but I’ve actually heard people tell me they are going to Heaven because they are “good” people who go to church…lame!  If the answer to “Why are you going to Heaven?” is ANYTHING other that “JESUS”…it is a lame sacrifice!

Let me give you an example of what I‘m talking about:  When I was 16 I thought I was going to be the next Angus Young, Kirk Hammett, or Ace Frehley (If you don’t know these guys…that’s probably GOOD thing!)  I wanted to be a famous guitar player.  At that same age, I got saved.  For 5 years, I knew that God wanted me to give up playing with the guys I was playing with.  He also wanted me to give up the kind of music that I was playing and the kind of junk I was doing.  I repeatedly told Him “NO“…well, I wasn’t that bold, but I never did what I knew He wanted me to do.  Like Eutychus in Acts chapter 20, I kept one foot in the world and one foot in church.  Finally, when I was 20, I quit the band…only to watch them become more popular and more successful as the years went by (I must have been holding them back!)  I REMINDED God just how great my sacrifice was ALL the time!

But, you know what happened?  I slowly grew closer and closer to Him and I didn’t even care about their success anymore.  Then, 11 years after that, He opened the door for me to play at Golden Corner Church.  Now, instead of playing in front of 25-50 people and saying “look how great I am”, I occasionally get to play in front of around 400 people and say “look how great He is!”  God knew all along what I needed to do, but He left it up to me to actually do it!  When I did…He BLESSED ME!  He accepted my sacrifice!  Why?  Because I gave Him something that was valuable to ME!  If it’s valuable to ME, it’s valuable to HIM!

I also went through quite a little spell of always having to date somebody, or having a girlfriend.  I knew that God wanted me to be by myself for one year to learn to just be happy with ME.  I told Him “no” for quite a while.  I finally gave in and told Him “I’ll do it.”  All of a sudden, hot chicks came out of the woodwork that would have never given me the time of day to talk to me before that decision was made.  Well, I stuck to my guns and did not date.  EXACTLY one year later, I laid eyes on the most beautiful woman I have ever met, she is now my wife, and has been my wife for over ten years now.  I went from needing to be in a relationship to honor and please ME, to being in a relationship that honors and pleases Him!  I didn’t see it at the time, but I see it now…and man, am I glad that GOD HONORS SACRIFICES!

So, what is it that you’ve sacrificed for the Lord?  Maybe there is something that you know you need to give up for Him because He‘s been telling you for a long time.  It may be that there is something that He wants you to do!  If you aren’t spending any time with Him, maybe it’s time to start.

Here’s what I know:  Whatever it is…It will be hard…BUT…It will be WORTH IT!

Later

Adam

There is a great illustration of this here:

Misused Power

II Samuel 11

In the past few weeks something else amazing has happened.  A lot of teenagers have given their lives to the Lord and are letting people know about it.   The fact that so many young people are interested in the things of God tells me they are getting tired of the cheap substitutes the world tries so hard to replace Him with!  A new, hungry generation is rising up!  I wish I’d been more serious (well…serious in the first place) about my walk with the Lord when I was a teenager.  But, you can’t go back…only forward.

Many of today’s youth have received something very valuable from the Lord. For some, it’s this amazing ability to play an instrument. For others, it’s the ability to absolutely electrify a crowd when they step on the field or court. The point is, you may be placed in a position where somebody, possibly many people look up to you! The Lord has given you something called INFLUENCE! You have the ability to make a certain “crowd” follow YOU and your example! How well do you use it? What do you do with that power?

In verse 2 of II Samuel 11, David walked upon the roof of his palace.  The Lord gave him an extreme amount of popularity.  He could do it all!  He could tear up a guitar, he could sing, and he could fight better than Russell Crowe in the movie “Gladiator” (now THAT’s pretty awesome…I hope God has everything recorded on DVD in Heaven so we can watch!…ah, He probably has BluRay!!!)  Anyway, David was ridiculously cool to say the least…people didn‘t just want to be LIKE him, they wanted to BE him!  God literally gave him the highest position in the land…he was KING…people looked up to him, just like many people may look up to you!

In one unguarded moment, David absolutely destroyed his spotless, “man after God’s own heart” reputation.  He saw a beautiful woman named Bathsheba taking a bath on her rooftop.  He liked what he saw, summoned her to his palace, and one thing led to another.  She ended up having sex with him for no other reason than the fact that the King was the hottest, richest, coolest, guitar playin’est, smartest, fightinest, baddest dude in the land!  She knew it….EVERYBODY knew it!  David was the star quarterback…Bathsheba was the head cheerleader.  God gave David his amazing abilities, just like He gave you yours!  God raised David up so others looked up to him!  God raised you up so others look at you.  Where did David go wrong?  Well, for just a little while, he put God on the backburner.  Where have you placed Him?  Where does He rank in your life right now?

Every single year I see the same thing happen with at least one teenager.  God gives him or her this amazing talent.  Talent to throw a ball, shoot one through a hoop, or flat out murder one with a bat…and it gets misused.  They use their popularity to be the “life of the party”.  They use it to “get girls.”  They use it to pick on other people that are weaker or not as talented as themselves.  Somehow, they think they have some sort of a license to make fun of others.  They think that THEY have earned their popularity and do not see it as given to them by God…BIG mistake!

Being a teacher, I used to feel sorry for those students that they picked on, or the girl that got sucked in to the “star’s” charm and got used and dumped only to be replaced by the next victim.  I still feel bad for them, but I feel a lot sorrier for the ones who misuse all that power.  I think about the people they could have won to the Lord, those that might have listened to the star athlete tell of how the Lord Jesus can cleanse you of your sins and grant you eternal life.  Instead, I watch their time run out so quickly.  They graduate, the old “glory days” come to an end, and there’s nothing left but the wishing….wishing they could go back.  Back to the days when everyone looked up to them.  Back to the days when people thought they were so cool.  Back to the days when they could have taken their academics seriously and focused on a career.  Back to the days they could have helped others instead of tear them down.

REALIZE that you have been given a little bit of influence for a little bit of time.  Live for Him!  Be like the teenagers Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel chapter 3!  While the rest of the World is bowing down to the gods of alcohol, drugs and pre-marital sex….REFUSE to bow down!  Say “The God that I serve is able to deliver me from all that and use me for His Kingdom, His Purpose, and His Glory!”

Matthew 7:13 and 14:  Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction.  MANY are traveling down that road.  But narrow is the way and strait is the way that leads to life, and FEW there be that find it!

What are you going to do?  Follow the CROWD to destruction? Or, follow JESUS down that narrow way that leads to true life?  I’ve made my choice and I’m NEVER going back!  Make YOUR choice TODAY!

BE one of the FEW!

Realize what you have!

Use it Wisely!

You’ll NEVER regret it!

Later

Adam