Friday Devotional...1/13/12

Circumcision of the Heart

The Apostle Paul wrote in the New Testament to the Romans declaring that he was circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee.

Paul (then called Saul) was a very educated Hebrew Pharisee who served the law to the utmost extent with a vast knowledge and passion for the law and a tough right hand to enforce it. He was circumcised the eighth day of his life and followed the Law of Moses to the precise degree. He understood the depth and meaning of being a Jew and what God had commanded of every male Jew “To be circumcised.” It was a symbol to the Jew that circumcision set them apart from the gentiles. They were strong in their belief of righteousness, as circumcision was an act of their courage and faith in the Jehovah God of Israel.

In Acts Chapter 9, as Saul was breathing threats and murder against the disciples for preaching this “Jesus” and the new word from Jesus that the disciples were teaching…. God had to knock Saul to the ground off of his horse and temporarily blind him to get Saul’s attention, Saul said “Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest; it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.” Saul was astonished and went trembling into Damascus as that was his destination to carry a letter to have the authority to persecute any who were not obeying the law.

The Bible soon declares that Saul was renamed Paul and became a believer that Jesus had come to the Jews to set them free from the bondage of the law and was actually God in the flesh…their Savior. Paul then preached throughout the land a new revelation of “Circumcision”. How the Lord had revealed to him that it was now a circumcision of the heart through the Holy Spirit. God would replace our cold stony hearts with a new heart of understanding.

Today, we, as Christians, comprehend the "circumcision of the heart", as God has given us an inward understanding that the heart of man is to be a Godly Pure Heart not just an outward appearing. Jesus came to give us a New Heart, not of the law but of a free will to love one another.

This is the purest of pure…to have a make over of our hardened hearts. Only through a walk and faith in the Lord Jesus can we have a Circumcision of the Heart to do what is right and just and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Written by:

Glenna Williamson

Thursday Devotional...11/12/12

O Christmas Tree

I am going to be completely honest. It is almost mid-January and I have not put away any Christmas decorations. This isn’t my longest record (or delay, depending on your point of view) I once waited until Valentine’s Day then I could resist no longer. I knew I was at a crisis when even my young children offered to help clean our home of the holiday trimmings. I enjoy Christmas and the twinkling lights, prettily arranged décor, and carefully situated manger scenes that transform every room.

It makes me think of dressing up. I enjoy going out for a special event. I put on my best dress, spend more than 3 minutes on my makeup, and do something with my hair. I feel pretty on these occasions because I have taken time to decorate me! I’m not any thinner or taller, yet I do look brighter.

There is only one other thing that makes a bigger difference in how I appear: my attitude. I can wear an attitude like some women wear lipstick: bold and perfectly applied. If I am angry, bitter, or resentful (because of some conflict or hurt) it will show in my face, tone of voice, and posture. But I know from experience that I cannot just decide to forgive someone and then it’s gone. I have to walk in forgiveness. I have to think forgiveness. I have to be completely soaked in forgiveness or I am just pretending, like a fake tree pretends to be a freshly cut evergreen.

Colossians 3:11-13

(New Living Translation)

In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile,
circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free.
Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.

Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves,
you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted
mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

Make allowance for each other’s faults,

and forgive anyone who offends you.

Remember the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

Dear Lord, please help me to put on the clothes in the scripture passage above. I know some things are too tight to put on because I am puffed up with pride or swollen with anger. In my rush to hurry up and ‘fix’ myself I tear the jacket of gentleness, in my self-pity I am too distracted to be kind. Ah, please help me to place myself in Your hands and trust You to work in me, so that little by little I will be less self-concerned. In Jesus name, amen.

Written by Mary M. Wilkins

Wednesday Devotional...1/11/12

"Walking In God's Truth"

I recently watched an "I Love Lucy" episode called "Lucy Tells The Truth." Fred, Ethel and her husband Ricky bet Lucy $50 that during a 24 hour period she would not be able to tell the truth. If you are a "Lucy lover," you may recall Lucy being famous for stretching the truth. Those next crucial 24 hours, Lucy is faced with many challenges and choices in telling the truth or telling a lie. At first it was very difficult and uncomfortable for her to tell the truth, but challenge after challenge she began to gain momentum and speaking the truth became easier for her. As she spoke the truth to her friends and family, many of them became irritated, uneasy and surprised. Lucy came to a place where she was extremely gut-level honest and it was not fun for anyone to hear the truth. This was a side of Lucy that they were not used to.

This episode made me think of the scripture in 3 John 1:4

"I have no greater joy than to hear
that my children are walking in the truth."

There are times when I read God's word and the Holy Spirit begins to reveal His truth. His truth penetrates my heart and conviction begins to rise in my spirit. God's truth can sometimes make me very uncomfortable, especially if I am not walking in truth in that particular area. But if my heart is open and teachable and receptive, and I am willing to be obedient, the more I hear and walk in His truth the easier it becomes.

Well you guessed it! Lucy won the bet and she walked off $50 richer. When we choose to walk in God's truth, we give the Lord great joy and our lifes become richer in Christ. Let's begin each day of our lifes in walking in God's truth.

Blessings,

Sandy Billingham

Devotional for Tuesday...12/16/11

TRUE KINDNESS

And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue;

and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to

temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness

brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

2 Peter 1:5-7

**************************************************************************

The apostle Paul tells us to "be kind to one another." Peter says to "add brotherly kindness" to the other godly virtues God is developing in us. Living according to God's instruction, following the example of Christ and aided by the Holy Spirit, we produce the wonderful, spiritual fruit of kindness.

Kindness and charity are twins in a way, for how can you have true kindness in your heart, and not be charitable towards your fellow man? As Christians, we must not judge who is and who is not in need of charity .

submitted by:
Annie

Devotional for Monday...1/9/12

Psalm 92
It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High
To proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night,
To the music of the ten-stringed lyre & the melody of the harp

 For you make me glad by your deeds, O Lord;
I sing for joy at the works of your hands.
How great are your works, O Lord, how profound your thoughts!
You have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox; fine oils have been poured upon me.

 The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;

Planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God.
They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh & green,
Proclaiming, “The Lord is upright; he is my Rock , & there is no wickedness in Him

Oh Father

Oh Father, Oh Father

Do as you will with your servant, My Lord

Oh Father, Oh Father

Do as you will with this life, My Lord

Oh Father, Oh Father

I lay it all down and don’t hold on

Oh Father, Oh Father
Living in you

Hide me in the folds of your garments

Let me go where you go

Let me walk where you walk

As I stand in the folds

I can’t be seen

As I live there, abide there

I am not seen,

Only you

Let me go forth carried in the folds of your garments

Not my will

Not my desire

Not my plans

Not my vision

Let me go forth in the folds of your garment

Just abiding, standing on your sandals

Guided by your footstep

What a hiding place,

What a dwelling place

There is no other

When you walk, I go

Where you abide, I do also

My life is hidden in yours

For I have found my dwelling place.

Mt. Hermon-Celebration Woman’s Retreat
April 29, 2006
Kathy B.

FEELINGS

repost from

SUNDAY, JANUARY 16, 2011

FEELINGS

We all have feelings, some stronger than others. Our feelings are driven by what we believe and think and say to ourselves. For example, if someone points a gun at you, it is likely that you would feel fear. What is the cause of that fear? The gun? The person holding the gun? Or you and what you think about the situation? Most people would probably experience at least some fear, but that is due to their knowledge and/or experience that guns can be harmful or deadly and the thought that they could easily be shot. But what if you believed the gun was just a toy and you believed the person holding it was just joking? Your feelings would probably be quite different.


I was held up at gunpoint when I was in college. I was walking down the sidewalk outside the university library at 3:30 in the afternoon when I passed a young man walking the other way. He spoke first, greeting me with a friendly "Hello" and I responded "Hi" without even looking up at him. The next thing I knew, he was pointing a gun right in my face and demanding my purse. It surprised me, taking me entirely off guard due to the time of day and location, but also because it was a chrome-plated gun. It had the same appearance as the toy guns we had played with as kids, so I immediately thought it was a joke, and that it was a toy gun! I said nothing, and never even saw his face as I stared at the gun, and he grabbed my purse as he turned and ran around the corner to his get-away car and accomplice. The next thing I felt was frustration and anger, thinking of the photos in my purse that only had meaning for me, and that he only got $3.00 cash. The only thing I said was "Oh, man!" as I picked up what else had fallen out of my hands when he yanked the purse off my arm. I went into the library to call the security office, and then it finally hit me, the adrenaline coursing through my blood, making every inch of my body shake with fear. So I experienced a wide range of emotions in a very short period of time, all because of what I was thinking at each of those different moments. The gunman didn't cause my fear, I did based on what I believed and thought and told myself!


We can choose how to feel about something by choosing what we believe about it, how we think about it, and what we tell ourselves about it. This applies to all our emotions, such as anger, anxiety, fear, sadness, shame, guilt, etc. Our immediate response may be difficult to control, but how it continues to affect us afterward is our choice. It is not necessarily easy to change negative feelings into positive ones, but we have help:


"I can do all things through him who gives me strength." Phil. 4:13


"Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." I Peter 5:7


"Martha, Martha, the Lord answered, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed, Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." Luke 10:41b-42a


So, what is that "one thing" that is needed? It is faith in God that He will care for all our needs, that He has our future handled, that our life is in his loving hands. This is our basic belief on which we can focus our thoughts and internal talk. We can pray that God would help us to change those feelings that are causing us difficulty and strengthen our faith in him. Then we can move forward with confidence in the Lord!


Written by Jan Andersen

Saturday Devotional...1/7/12

 “You” – The Motion Picture
            Starring…You

Let’s just say that your life is a motion picture from conception all the way to your death and what happens after. There is a team of writers. The writers include you, God, everyone you come in contact with and even Satan and his demons. Contrary to popular belief, you are the head writer up until your death, not God. He’ll completely take over after that.

Now, in the beginning, your writing is minimal, but increases as the movie continues. Unfortunately, you don’t know the whole movie before filming begins. You write as you go. Once filming begins, at the time of conception, then God can see the whole picture. He gets a sneak preview, but He won’t give too much away. He usually doesn’t give much away at all. But when He does, you would be wise to listen.

Satan and his demons watch very carefully to see when they want to jump in with their own writing, and they do it more often than you realize. However, God distracts them during certain key parts of the movie so their knowledge is limited. Though, when they do jump in, they have to first get permission from God. So rest assured, when intense music is heard and dark shadows are seen in the alley ways of the set, God is still in control.

God wears many hats…writer, editor, camera man, director and producer. That should about cover it. On the other hand, you contribute to each one of those jobs as well. This is your movie that you are in charge of and starring in. To make a great movie, you really should listen to the One who knows it all, because He’ll be the One to pick up the writing completely after the climax…that would be your death.

As director, He interferes from time to time when He feels it’s necessary, and you might disagree with His judgment, but since He’s not only directing yours, but millions of others at the same time, you should be grateful for His input and decisions. The truth is, most of the time, He has to be asked to step in and say, “Stop the filming…this is wrong…let’s do it this way.” Being the kind director that He is, all it really takes is for you to say, “Help me.”

You see, God’s not really concerned with how much money your movie makes or how many awards it’s nominated for or wins. He’s mainly concerned with the end, which as the story goes, is what happens after you die and He takes over. What He writes into it at that point is dependent upon your writing up until then. The end is determined by the plot, and He absolutely cannot write that part. It’s the rule He made that He won’t break. After your death, He carefully searches every detail of the movie to see if you made one specific choice…that’s your plot. What He writes depends on that plot completely. So, it appears that everyone ultimately has the same plot with different details.

God gives you plenty of information so that you can write your plot well. If you don’t catch on right away, He’ll give you more time and information. He truly wants you to succeed at this, even though Satan and his demons want you to fail, so they distract you at every opportunity they can. Don’t mistake this, it doesn’t matter how many distractions there are, God still gives you all you need to have the greatest ending ever to be written.

There are certain things you cannot write such as how you come into this world and how you go out of it. This is His job. But I suppose you could say that He really edits these parts because conception is always tied to the motion pictures of others, and death quite often is as well. Having said this, there’s a special quality about our “Life” motion pictures that doesn’t necessarily apply to the motion pictures or television programs we all love to watch. Everybody at all times must be prepared to succumb to other writers who are writing their own stories. Yours is included in theirs and theirs are included in yours. This sometimes happens in the realm of Hollywood like combining information from Iron Man into other movies like Thor or when CSI Las Vegas overlaps their episode and characters with Crossing Jordan. It’s not a rule for them, but it is for us. So whether or not you think it to be fair, your movie will always have other writers sticking their noses in on it. Just remember that God is the editor of all “life” movies and He can be trusted.

Remember, even though God knows the end, He won’t give it away while you are in the process of determining your plot. For many, however, if their plot is written well, He gives them assurance of how their movie will end after the climax, death. Even if He doesn’t like how it ends, He’s faithful to give you all the resources you need to produce this movie. It’s up to you trust Him, work hard, do all your research and use His resources wisely.

You see, God is not the writer of all things, but He is the writer of the greatest story ever told…the story that we are to use to determine the plot of our own “life” movies. And though, He doesn’t write all the details of everyone’s story, He can see from the moment of conception every choice we will make up until the end. This is because He’s not trapped in time like we are. He loves people and His desire for each person from the moment He creates them is for them to make the right choices. He never creates someone with a destiny to fail, yet He knows immediately if and when they will. You might ask why continue to allow a person to live their life once He knows they are going to fail. The answer is because their failure must have evidence of who was responsible for it.

We all have choices to make…each and every one of us, every moment of every day. You would be wrong to live your life as if it’s already planned out for you because that’s a lie. You write as you go. Your movie is going to be produced no matter what choices you or others around you make. It’s an honorable job…given to you because of how highly you are regarded by the director. How do you want yours to end? You’re still alive, so you still have choice. You might not be able to say that tomorrow. Do you know the greatest story ever told? If so, have you chosen Jesus?

Written by
 Amie Spruiell 1/30/2002
Revised 1/06/2012