Hebrews 11:6
“And without faith it is impossible to please God.”

Peter walking on the water to Jesus is one of the great stories from the Gospels. It is good to remember that Peter didn’t walk on water because Jesus lifted him out of the boat and moved his legs for him. Instead, the miracle of Peter walking on water happened because Peter believed Jesus’ words and responded in faith.

Can we still follow Jesus today just as Peter did? Yes, if we:
1.) See Jesus in our storms
2.) Respond to what He says to us
3.) Refuse to be intimidated by our surroundings
4.) Do what others around us (in the boat) are afraid to do
5.) Don’t settle just for what seems rational

All God needs is something to work with and someone to work through. If we are willing to give ourselves to God, we can “walk on water”, or start a foundation, or lead mission trips, or find different ways to help those in need, or break out of our shell and spread the Gospel boldly. The only thing that can stop God from using us is our unbelief. (Are you a pessimist that can’t seem to find their way out of a paper sack? Are you always frustrated by the smallest obstacles? Do you throw your hands up and quit way too quickly?) Matthew 13:58 “And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.”

Since God cannot be pleased without faith, each of us needs to make a quality commitment each day to develop our faith. When faith is developed and put to the test, lives change forever.

Related Text:
Hebrews 11:1
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

Acts 17:5-7
“But the Jews became jealous, and when they had brought together some scoundrels from the marketplace and formed a mob, they set the city in an uproar. Attacking Jason’s house, they searched for them to bring them out to the public assembly. When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city officials, shouting, ‘These men who have turned the world upside down have come here too, and Jason has received them as guests! They are all acting contrary to Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king—Jesus!’”

At this point in the book of Acts, Paul and Silas were on a missionary journey spreading the news that Jesus was the Messiah and that He died for the sins of the world so that everyone who believed in Him could have everlasting life with God in Heaven. They were turning their world upside down by preaching that Jesus is the King of Kings, that there is only One True God, that Jesus is the only way to Heaven, and that love, joy, peace, and humility are greater than accumulation of wealth or power.

Take the truth of the Gospel to the people around you and rock their world! Go read the Sermon on the Mount starting in Matthew 5 and see how Jesus flipped this world on it’s head. Black is white, right is left, weak is strong, meek is powerful, humble is great, first is last.

Related Text:
Matthew 5:5-9 – “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”

Matthew 5:9
“You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.”

Emotions are hard to understand. Try to accurately describe how you are feeling to a group of people and chances are you’ll end up with as many different understandings as there are people in the group you are speaking to. If you ever have trouble understanding how someone feels emotionally, try to sympathize with them rather than getting caught up in “figuring them out”. Whatever you do, don’t try to talk them out of how they feel; just listen. Even if their emotions seem illogical to you, don’t withhold your support or friendship. Feelings don’a always make sense. “When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.” Psalm 73:21-22

David is not alone is he? Most of us act differently when we are hurting, many times illogical ideas take control during those times. Solomon says, “A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.” Proverbs 19:11

Patiently listening to another person tell you how they feel says to them, “I care about our relationship more than our differences; you matter to me.” Sure, it’s a sacrifice to patiently absorb someone’s anger or fear, especially when it’s unfounded. But remember, that’s what Jesus does for us!

If you’ve hurt someone else’s feelings, confess your part (even if you didn’t intend any hurt). Ask yourself if you are truly treating others in a loving, peaceful, and Godly way. Do you have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control when interacting with others? Or, do you have frustration, anger, bitterness, impatience, and little tolerance? Here’s a tough one; ask God to put someone in your life to hold you accountable in your actions and attitude. When left unaccounted for, we are prone to become callus and bitter because of the way the world treats us. If we go to long acting in such a way without anyone keeping us in check, then we become almost frozen in our bad attitude. If stuck in this condition year after year after year, we won’t even be able to see our own faults when we really do hurt someone. Remember, our attitude and our actions towards others is sometimes our only witness.

Related Text:
Matthew 7:5
“You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

click the shirt to see a larger image…………….

Devotional

Forgiven: Romans 5:8 – “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”

Jesus died on a cross as a sacrifice for our sins so that we could be forgiven and be reconciled to God.(John 3:16-17) To be reconciled to God means that we are brought back into a relationship with God, our creator. You see, our sin separated us from God; our relationship with Him is broken because of our sin.(Isaiah 59:2) So, if it’s broken, it needs to be fixed, right? But, no matter how hard we try, we cannot correct our relationship with God on our own. We cannot do anything to deserve everlasting life in heaven because our sins makes us deserve hell.(Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23)

But God, in all of His love and grace and mercy, sent Jesus to die for us as a sacrifice for our sins, washing them all away. “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”(2 Corinthians 5:21) And now, with our sins paid for, we have forgiveness and eternal life through Jesus when we accept Him as our Savior and make Him the Lord of our lives.

God orchestrated all of this even though we were sinners. God did not send Jesus to die for our sins after we agreed to follow Him. God showed us His extravagant love even though we were separated from Him, living in our sin. Just for a moment, think of the worst thing you have ever done. Jesus died for us even though you did whatever it is you are thinking about right now. While we were the worst person we could possibly be, God gave us the best of His love. He took all of the filth that we once were and washed it clean.

When you are forgiven, you are a new creation in Jesus. The old you is dead and gone; your old sin life has passed away. You are free to begin your new life living for Jesus who died for your sins. (2 Corinthians 5:15-17)

** I encourage you to use these passages from God’s Word as a resource in your daily life. Don’t let this truth just rest on this tag or on this shirt. Use it! Let it become a part of you, let the scripture be written on your heart and move you to live your life in obedience to God out of love. Dive into God’s Word, spend time with Him in prayer, connect with other believers, live for Jesus who died for your sins and rose again! **

FYI – We have a Bible Study on Facebook.com and invite you to join. New scripture is posted daily. If you don’t have a Facebook Account, then you will need to create one to join the Bible Study. So, if you’re interested, sign into your Facebook Account and search “Facebook Bible Study – yes you can join!”

Philippians 3:7-9 – “I once thought these things were valuable, but now I
consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with Him. ”

Do you love Jesus so much that everything else in your life feels like trash compared to Him? Think about the trashcan in your kitchen, it always has the messiest, grossest, and most stinky trash (or at least ours does, haha). You come home and you’re hit with this stench from across the room and you hang your head as you realize you put last night’s spaghetti scraps and various refrigerator leftovers in the trash but you forgot to take it outside to the dumpster. It’s been rotting all day, and now you have this vile stink filling your house and making you a little dizzy, but you’ve got to take it outside because the smell just gets worse with time. As you move closer, the smell gains strength and your stomach starts churning. When you close up the trash bag, that little puff of air hits you in the face and you gag and almost hurl your lunch as you tie
it up and race outside bag-in-hand hoping it’s not dripping on the floor. That’s some nasty trash!

Is that how you view all your good deeds and material things when you compare them to Jesus and knowing that He died to offer you salvation from your sins? Are you seeking God’s wisdom and striving to grow closer to Him more each day, or are you wasting time building up riches, trying to impress people with what you wear, what you own, or what you’ve accomplished?

Paul was saying that all the stuff in his life that he thought made him a good person (all of his rule-following and “righteous” deeds and all of the high-ranking positions and accomplishments that he achieved) was worthless compared to knowing Jesus. THAT is love and devotion to God.

My prayer is to be so in love with God and so devoted to Him that everything in my life stinks like the kitchen trashcan when compared to Jesus. Will you join me in that prayer? Compared to knowing Jesus, everything else just fades away.

Related Text:
John 17:3
“And this is the real and eternal life: that they know you, the one and only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent.”

Matthew 5:9
“Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.”

Jesus didn’t say “blessed are the peace-lovers”, because everyone enjoys peace. Nor did He say, “blessed are the peaceable who are easy going and never let anything bother them”. Being a peacemaker is different than being a person who doesn’t let anything bother them or someone who enjoys peace. Peacemakers are rare because peace-making is hard work. But it’s worth the effort.

Relationships are always worth restoring. God wants us to value our relationships instead of discarding them every time there’s a problem. Paul wrote, “Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.” (Philippians 2:1-2)

The ability to get along well with other believers is a mark of spiritual maturity. God wants His family to be known for their love of each other. Broken relationships hurt our witness and our testimony to others. Paul, in his letter to the church in Corinth, was upset with the way the people were separating inside the church and breaking into warring factions. He was shocked that no one had the spiritual maturity to resolve the conflicts peaceably. Where ever you are, as long as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. And, even when it’s difficult, ask for God’s wisdom to become a peacemaker.

Related Text:
1 Corinthians 1:10
“I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.”

Romans 12:2
“Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

If you are wrestling with a certain problem, thinking “If I could just get through this, everything will be alright”, then you may find this as bad news. In all likely hood, when you conquer this particular problem, God will reveal something new that needs to be dealt with. God will always be working on us, aiding us in our journey to spiritual maturity; becoming all that He wants us to be.

Real change doesn’t come through frustration, self-rejection, guilt, or white-knuckled human effort. Real change comes as a result of having our mind renewed daily by the Word of God (that means our daily reading and study of our Bibles). As we agree with God, believing what He says is true, change will occur. We start to think differently, then talk differently, and finally act differently. As plainly as I can say it, when you spend time with God reading your Bible, it will change you.

But what so often happens is that we become complacent with our lives and routines. We become a run-down version of our formers selves, cracking under the pressure of our daily responsibilities. Often, the first thing that get’s squeezed out of our day is time with God. Then, before we know it, we have no joy, no peace, we begin to feel hopeless, and we wonder what’s happened to us. We think, act, and live no differently than the people around us who don’t know Jesus. GET BACK INTO HIS WORD!

Related Text:
Deuteronomy 11:18-20
“Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates”

SATURATE YOUR LIFE WITH THE HOLY SCRIPTURES FROM GOD’S WORD

Philippians 4:4-9
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”

We’ve got to step outside of our self deception, we’ve got to quit lying to ourselves when we read scripture. If you’re anything like me, (and there’s a huge possibility that you’re nothing like me) when I read scripture, I’m way too quick to say, “yea, I do that” without really stopping fully to inspect myself and my habits and ask myself if I really am doing what the scripture says. (follow me so far?)

I think that when I read my Bible and I’m quick to say “yea, I do that”, what I really mean is “yea, I’d really like to do that”. But it seems like too often I don’t take the time to apply it to my life. I check off my Christian box for the day, but don’t always make the truth of the scripture a reality. I wish I did.

I felt this way when I read today’s Bible verses. I read about rejoicing always and praying continually and thought, “well, I do that”. But I don’t. Not always and continually. There are a couple of days in a row, or even weeks in a row where I have done it before, but always is always and continually is continually. So, no breaks right!?

I don’t curse God, so I’m not saying that I do the opposite of rejoicing. But I don’t rejoice in the Lord always, and there are times where worries take the place of prayers. I get tired of the hassle at work, I feel overwhelmed by responsibilities, sometimes it feels easy to sleep in – spiritually speaking.

My prayer this morning is that I find a way to celebrate God all the time, every day, no matter what. No matter my stress level, no matter how tough work gets, no matter how sleepy I am, no matter if it’s raining and the dog gets mud all over the carpet, no matter anything. I want my rejoicing and praise and worship of God to mold my worries into prayers. I want to seek God with all of my energy. I don’t ever want to give up. I want God to work His most excellent harmonies in me!

So there it is. If none of this makes sense to you or if you can’t connect with these scenarios, then I guess this was just my time of confession and prayer before God. But if you can relate to some of this stuff today, then hit me up and we can start sharing ideas, helping with accountability, rejoicing together, always praising our God and praying about anything and everything, all the time!

Related Text:
Psalm 62:5-6
“Rest in God alone, my soul,
for my hope comes from Him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my stronghold; I will not be shaken.”

1 Corinthians 9:19-27
“Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it! You’ve all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You’re after one that’s gold eternally. I don’t know about you, but I’m running hard for the finish line. I’m giving it everything I’ve got. No sloppy living for me! I’m staying alert and in top condition. I’m not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else all about it and then missing out myself.”

Paul was meeting people where they were in their lives. He was taking the Gospel of Jesus out to the people, and not waiting on the people to clean up and come to him.

Serving others will look different in each of our lives; we won’t all serve God or serve others in the same way. God has made us all different and we have been given different gifts, talents, abilities, and passions. However, we must be careful not to use this as an excuse to keep putting off service, or we’ll end up never serving God at all. It’s easy to say that we are just waiting see what our ability is, and then later we will use it to serve God. Basically, it’s super easy to keep putting off serving God with our lives.

But that’s what Jesus has called us to do. It’s not all going to look the same, but Jesus told all of His followers to leave their own lives behind, and live for Him. 2 Corinthians 5:15 says, “And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”

Related Text:
Romans 12:9-21
Luke 9:23-24
Hebrews 12:1-3
John 15:12-14
1 John 3:16