Who is your King?

Some of you may have seen this before, but watch it again and really meditate on the truth of the words. Who is your King?

being a pain

This post is again late because I have been having trouble getting onto the blog site for the last two nights. Anyway.

As we head into August soon, what is something you want to take into the coming school year? (example- be more of a light for Christ, or do devotions more regularly). Let us know so we may all encourage one another.

The Bible can be so frustrating.

The book of James can sometimes be frustrating. Especially when you have had a frustrating day. And the extra frustrating part of the frustrating book is that it frustrates you by the second verse of the book! Let me back up a second to tell the story behind this...

We recently moved into a new old house. When we did, we knew we would have to put some work into it, painting, drywall, stuff like that. Well when we moved in, we knew we were going to need to replace the toilet in the upstairs bathroom because the toilet had a crack. Well, we got the new toilet and took the old one off, and we noticed that the pipe didn't fit quite properly. Well to make a long story shorter, we ended up with a hole in our ceiling downstairs and an entire while ripped out to work on the sewage pipes. Not quite the easy job we had in mind.

This situation is very frustrating to me, it is a trial of my patience among other things. This is where James 1:2 frustrates me because it says this: "Consider it pure joy, whenever you face trials of many kinds." What is up with that? It doesn't say to just get over it, suck it up, or deal with it. It is much worse, we are to consider these trials as pure joy, because these trials develop perserverence.

I am not good at this, but maybe you are better. Take a look at James 1:2-4. What are some ways you can live out this frustrating verse?

Sounds of Melodies...

Been listening to this new band Leeland. They are really good musically but sing some really great, authentic worship to our Lord. I wanted to give you some of the lyrics to their latest single Sounds of Melodies. This is how it goes:

WE WHO WERE CALLED TO BE YOUR PEOPLE
STRUGGLING SINNERS AND THIEVES
WERE LIFTED UP FROM THE ASHES
AND OUT CAME THE SONG OF THE REDEEMED
THE SONG OF THE REDEEMED

CAN YOU HEAR THE SOUND OF MELODIES
OH THE SOUND OF MELODIES
RISING UP TO YOU
RISING UP TO YOU GOD

THE SOUND OF YOUR LOVE
THE SOUND OF YOUR LOVE
IS WHAT YOURE HEARING
THE SOUND OF YOUR SONS
THE SOUND OF YOUR SONS
YOUVE WON YOUR CHILDREN
THE SOUND OF YOUR LOVE
THE SOUND OF YOUR LOVE
IS WHAT YOURE HEARING
YOUR DAUGHTERS IN LOVE
YOUR DAUGHTERS IN LOVE
YOUVE WON YOUR CHILDREN

I really relate to this song, especially as struggling sinners and thieves. But it is awesome for us to remember that by God's grace we have been saved and lifted from the ashes. The question we have to ask ourselves is what is our response to that grace? Do we have the sounds of melodies being lifted up to God in our lives? Is God hearing the sound of His love from us?

Take a look at Romans 5:1-2 and rejoice that God has won us as His children.

technical difficulties

Sorry there was no devotion from today, there were technical difficulties on the system. There will be a new one tonight hopefully. Thanks for your understanding.

A prayer

Tonight I was thinking about last night's blog and lese's response to it (thanks for that) and for the fact that we are so often caught up in pointless stuff that has some value now, but not eternally. For one, how often I check my email, it has value, but if I spent that time in prayer think of how that could change the world.

Don't let anything diminish the size of your prayers. God is bigger than anything we could possibly think up. Tonight, let your prayers be bigger than the world. Feel free to share them at www.fbcacrossfire.blogspot.com.

how much time do you spend?

Did you ever think about how much time you spend doing different things? No matter what it may be, we all spend time in various ways. Eating and sleeping are some of my favorites. What are the things you spend the most time doing? Is it listening to music on your IPOD, watching TV, working, whatever it may be, think about how much time you spend in these various activities.

As we have just recently gotten back from Baton Rouge, I have been convicted that I do not place adaquate importance on the time we spent with God.

Throughout the gospels we see Jesus taking time away from his daily activities to spend time wit the father. May we keep each other accountable to spending time with our God.

Do you know who you are talking to?

Read an interesting thing today in a book by John White called Excellence in Leadership. In the book White writes "You can only have faith in someone to the extent that you know them. In particular you must know two things about them: that they are able and that they are willing to do what you want them to."

Where is your faith at with God today? How certain are you that God is able and willing to do what you want, or what he says, He will do. Spend some time thinking about this and write some examples of your proof of faith.

Get some rest!

No matter what type of creation view you may take, the literal done in 7 24 hour periods, the long creation view, or any combination of the two (there are too many for me to remember) a couple things remain true between all of them. First, God created it. Second, at the end God took a well deserved rest day.

When we go through the story of creation, and the stories of our lives, we often focus on all the work that is done. While this is important, our culture today tells us that we must always be working because that is where the value is. I know this can be true for me, too much to do in too little time.

But this is not what the Bible tells us in Genesis 2:3 where the author writes "Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it (set it aside), because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made."

We see here that work is important, and it is important that we do things creative and productive, but God also wants us to remember to set apart a time to rest and rejuvenate ourselves spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Don't let the busyness of life push out your time when you get to rest in the Lord.

Take a look at Matthew 11:28-30 and meditate on Jesus' promise to us today.

Back and better than ever.

Well, we just got back from a great vacation, in the middle of God's amazing creation. Nothing can explain this like a picture. Read through Psalm 8 and think about where God put us in creation compared to this...