Thursday, July 21st

Not too deep today, I read about maturity in the bible, something I have been studying off and on for the past few months.

James 1:2-8
2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

When I persevere, I mature. At least I hope I do. That's what the bible says, although sometimes I don't really feel it at the time. Bud Price used to say that he graduated from the school of hard knocks. I think it we (or at least me) are going to truely mature, trials will have to come. And with those trials, we must walk away persevering, or it is all for not.

Wednesday, July 20th

"God Remembers"

I read in "Cry of the Soul" today and looked at a number of different scriptures. A few things that stood out:

Psalm77:11 I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.

Psalm74:2 Remember the people you purchased of old, the tribe of your inheritance, whom you redeemed—Mount Zion, where you dwelt.

Somehow, we forget things. What we go to the store to get (IE: Milk) is classic for me. I tend to forget a lot of things. I always have to ask my wife every now and again if she loves me despite my short-comings. I do this for reassurance and it is good to hear sometimes. Verse 11 (above) is classic of me (and maybe I am the only one) to forget what God has done for me. God has done a lot for me. A LOT!! And despite it all, I forget about it and want more. Not only do I forget the deeds of long ago, but I forget the ones done yesterday. How sad am I? And yet, I can't get the lastest hit on the radio. Stuck into my brain. Where are my priorities? Now, with that said, what about Psalm 74:2? Do I need to ask God to remember anything? By no means. God remembers it all, unless we are cleaned of our sins. God will know what he needs to know. He remembers each of us. He knows each and every hair on my head. He knows me. He knows what I can and cannot handle. He protects me. And I don't deserve a thing.

Tuesday, July 19th

Personal Note: Rangers Win over the Yankees 2-1!

My quiet time today was over Psalm 77:10-20

10 Then I thought, "To this I will appeal: the years of the right hand of the Most High."
11 I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.
12 I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds.
13 Your ways, O God, are holy. What god is so great as our God?
14 You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples.
15 With your mighty arm you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.
16 The waters saw you, O God, the waters saw you and writhed; the very depths were convulsed.
17 The clouds poured down water, the skies resounded with thunder; your arrows flashed back and forth.
18 Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind, your lightning lit up the world; the earth trembled and quaked.
19 Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen.
20 You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

In this, I see how by turning to God, I can go from being depressed to feeling joyful. We are given miracles, but do we choose to see them? My son is an absolute miracle, that is easy to see. How about other things? My addiction, maybe? Most people would choose to see that as a curse, and in a sense, it is, but I choose to see the glass as half full. I was choosen by God to have this affliction, this thorn in my side, and I can take it a number of ways. I can look at it as a "wo-is-me" attitude, or as something to grow from and help others with the same affliction. Many wallow in their pity, and I have been guilty of that in the past. It is so easy to do. I think it is our nature to blow up our short-comings and turn them into a mountain. But Jesus said that with a mustard seed of faith, we can move that mountain. That is what I am going to do. Any thoughts, drop a line. Laterz.

Monday, July 18th

CR Message: Self-Control

Titus 1
1Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness— 2a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, 3and at his appointed season he brought his word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior,
4To Titus, my true son in our common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
5The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you. 6An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. 7Since an overseer is entrusted with God's work, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. 8Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. 9He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.
10For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group. 11They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain. 12Even one of their own prophets has said, "Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons." 13This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith 14and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the commands of those who reject the truth. 15To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. 16They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.

Titus 2
1You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. 2Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.
3Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.
6Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. 7In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness 8and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.
9Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, 10and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.
11For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
15These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.

Phillipians 3:12-16
12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
15All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

Proverbs 25:28
28 Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.

Luke 8:4-14
4While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: 5"A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. 6Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. 7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. 8Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown." When he said this, he called out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
9His disciples asked him what this parable meant. 10He said, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, " 'though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.'
11"This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. 12Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. 14The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature.

Acts 2:46-47
46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

2 Timothy 3:1-5
1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

This message was about having self-control, being choaked out by life's worries and little things that build into big things. So many times do I let the everyday stresses get in my way. Do I have self-control? What things get in my way, causing me to stumble with my walk with God? Now I have a son, how will I respond with him? Will he be a stumbling block in my salvation or will he be inspiration to grow closer to God? Great questions to think about. I have put deep thought into these things, and will focus on them in the days, weeks, and months to come. I was having weekly family devotionals, but about a month and a half ago, just stopped. I think with the message, I thought about it, and life choaked out my conviction of having those family devotionals. I need to regain the conviction and gain focus on God again. What kind of city am I building for my family? Do I have my walls build for defense against the evil one or am I vulnerable? I think I am more vulnerable than not. This will have to change. Thanks for the message. Any thoughts, feel free to post.

Response from Todd Asaad's message on 7/17/05

I thought I would put my notes from the message today on here, as well as my thoughts.

1Kings21:1-19 Says:
1 Some time later there was an incident involving a vineyard belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite. The vineyard was in Jezreel, close to the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. 2 Ahab said to Naboth, "Let me have your vineyard to use for a vegetable garden, since it is close to my palace. In exchange I will give you a better vineyard or, if you prefer, I will pay you whatever it is worth."
3 But Naboth replied, "The LORD forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers."
4 So Ahab went home, sullen and angry because Naboth the Jezreelite had said, "I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers." He lay on his bed sulking and refused to eat.
5 His wife Jezebel came in and asked him, "Why are you so sullen? Why won't you eat?"
6 He answered her, "Because I said to Naboth the Jezreelite, 'Sell me your vineyard; or if you prefer, I will give you another vineyard in its place.' But he said, 'I will not give you my vineyard.' "
7 Jezebel his wife said, "Is this how you act as king over Israel? Get up and eat! Cheer up. I'll get you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite."
8 So she wrote letters in Ahab's name, placed his seal on them, and sent them to the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth's city with him. 9 In those letters she wrote: "Proclaim a day of fasting and seat Naboth in a prominent place among the people. 10 But seat two scoundrels opposite him and have them testify that he has cursed both God and the king. Then take him out and stone him to death."
11 So the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth's city did as Jezebel directed in the letters she had written to them. 12 They proclaimed a fast and seated Naboth in a prominent place among the people. 13 Then two scoundrels came and sat opposite him and brought charges against Naboth before the people, saying, "Naboth has cursed both God and the king." So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death. 14 Then they sent word to Jezebel: "Naboth has been stoned and is dead."
15 As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to death, she said to Ahab, "Get up and take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite that he refused to sell you. He is no longer alive, but dead." 16 When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he got up and went down to take possession of Naboth's vineyard.
17 Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite: 18 "Go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who rules in Samaria. He is now in Naboth's vineyard, where he has gone to take possession of it. 19 Say to him, 'This is what the LORD says: Have you not murdered a man and seized his property?' Then say to him, 'This is what the LORD says: In the place where dogs licked up Naboth's blood, dogs will lick up your blood—yes, yours!' "

Ahab coveted. To covet is to want something that isn't yours. What do we covet? Do we go after things like the best computer, stereo, car? I know for me, I like to go after things. Mostly sporting events. I am not so much to go after high class stuff, but I like my family to have the good life. I tend to sacrifice more for them, and not so much for me.

Genesis 4:6-7 Says:
6 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."

Sin desires to have me. Lust, drugs, deceit, they all want me, but somehow I must master it. How? God grant me the strength. Be open about my temptations, before sin has developed.

James 1:12-15 Says:
12Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.
13When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

desire -> temptation -> sin -> death

1 John 2:15-17 Says:
15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

The world and it's desires will pass away. Only God last forever. Naboth loved God more than money & people. Do I sell out my convictions for wealth or to please people? I don't know. I think sometimes I can be soft spiritually instead of having the Godly heart. I guess the first step would be the ackowledgment of the problem, and then the next step would be to take action.

Isaiah 40:28-31, 41:10 Says:
40:28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.

29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;

31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

41:10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

God strengthens those who are faithful. Do not be afraid. God will take care of me, give me hope, be my guiding light.

1 Corinthians 1:27-29 Says:
27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him.

If I want to be a chosen one of God, I will be foolish, weak, & despised by the world's standards.

*Thought Question: AM I WILLING TO DIE FOR MY CONVICTIONS? AM I WILLING TO LET ME CHILDREN DIE FOR MY CONVICTIONS?*

That challenges me HARD! Todd talked about how terrorists are willing to kill for their convictions, but if it came down to it, I really don't think they are willing to loose their families like Naboth did. Naboth has become a hero in my eyes for standing up for his convictions. I will have to pray and maybe even get into some fasting to get my heart on where God wants for it to be.

James 4:7-10 Says:
7Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

I need to humble myself to have the convictions. To humble myself, I need to be open with my life.

Ephesians 6:10-18 Says:
10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

The world desires to give me everything & have me stand for nothing. Where do I want to be in five years, an employer may ask. Where do I want to be in five years, God may ask as well. How do they differ?