Zachaeus Wasn't A Wee Man Of Faith


Luke 19:2-5

- "And, behold, there was a man named Zachaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus, who He was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, "Zachaeus, make haste, and come down; for today I must abide at thy house.""

I must admit that I don't that I have ever read this story and realized what a beautiful picture this is of how our relationships with Jesus should be; How we should be pursuing our Lord. I would think that this is a story in the Bible that almost everyone has heard of and that we all read and see the Love of Jesus and how He even eats with the cheating tax collectors; How no matter what we have done will matter to Jesus, as long as we choose to turn away from those things and pursue Him. I believe that Jesus knew the heart of Zachaeus, when He saw him and told him He would dine at his home. As we read past these verses, we see that Zachaeus turns from his wicked ways and has this big "Grinch That Stole Christmas Turn Around" giving back his cheated money back to the people as well giving to the poor, but what really touched my heart while reading this story this morning was found in these verses above. First off we read that this Zachaeus guy was chief among the publicans, which automatically made my mind switch over to where Paul admits to be the "chief of sinners" in 1 Timothy 1:16. Now I'm not trying to put Zachaeus on blast or anything, but Paul with a changed heart tells us that he was the "chief of sinners" which, in my mind, when someone admits that they are the worst at something I usually think, "ehh, they're probably not that bad." But here we see that he, Zachaeus is known for being the chief of these publicans (tax collectors), who were known for cheating people out of their money, which is, in its on way, stealing. So Zachaeus is the "Leading Thief" we can call him, so the next part of that sentence becomes a little obvious, "and he was rich." Then it says that "he sought to see Jesus..." That hit me. Like I can't lie, this verse is what hit me and spoke to me and why I felt like I had to write this down. "He sought to see Jesus..." why?, for "who He was..." Zachaeus with all of his money and "power" that he probably had over these people, heard about who Jesus was, from somewhere, I don't think it really matters where, but he heard of Him and went to see Him. Why did he go to see Jesus? Well, It's my assumption that he liked what he heard of Him! He heard something that sparked in his head and thought, "Ya know, I should probably go see this Jesus guy." Then we see the part that kills me because I realize how much I DONT do this my walk with Christ... he, while being super short, unable to see Jesus through the crowd, ran AHEAD of the crowd, which by the way, if there's a crowd so big that you can't see through it, then there was probably a lot of people in it, meaning he had to work his way to the front of that crowd to get where he made it to. Then, it says he climbed into a tree, to see the Lord for he was to "pass that way." So we have Zachaeus, this wicked man, who hears of Jesus, wants to see Him, why? don't know, but I would assume it's because he heard something really good. Then he gets to the crowd, he's too short and says, "Bump that I'm going home"? NOPE, he drops his shoulder, forces his way to the front of the crowd, then waits for Jesus to walk past him"? NOPE, then he climbs into a tree... to make sure he gets a complete view of Jesus as He walks past. All this effort in hopes that he would be able just to SEE Jesus. Then Jesus looks up, sees a midget in a tree and says, "Oh now I've seen everything." No, however that would be quite a sight. But no He looks up and says "Hey! Zachaeus! get down here quick! I'm going to eat at your house today!"

Ya know, I feel like Jesus always has had a knack for finding the person in the crowd who stands out a little more. We have all these people who went to see Jesus just like Zachaeus did, they all went, but they all stood in the crowd. It's in some ways a little strange to me, because, I don't think that's a bad crowd to be in, ya know? That crowd was all there to see Jesus because either they heard of Him, maybe some of them really loved Him, they were all there to see Jesus yet, we have this one guy, Zachaeus, a well known sinner, putting forth all this effort just look upon Him as He passed by. And I believe that this is a great example how we should be striving to see our Lord as Christians but this also reminds me of one of my favorite lines ever in a movie. It's from God's Not Dead (I know a lot of people didn't like it, I personally didn't like it all that much), It's not out of the Bible so I'm just going to paraphrase, but it's the part where the jerk son visits his dying mother with Alzheimer's and she tells him, That sometimes the Devil allows people to live in a life of sin where they feel like nothing is wrong so that they stay in their sin, but in actuality, they are just paving their way into an eternity of Hell. This is how I feel Zachaeus' live was like before Jesus. I feel like he was just like those of us who didn't get hurt from their sins initially, but then He heard of Jesus, that there was something better for him in Jesus, and so he went to see Him and went beyond these other "Christian" people to see Him because he knew that he needed Him. We all can get very comfortable in our sins, and think we don't need to be working so hard just to see Jesus, we just need to stand in the crowd with the others and heck there are times when we have this annoying little man push us out of the way to get in front of us, to be the first up there, then we watch him climb a tree and we sit there and judge him and murmur at the situation as it says the crowd did in verse 7; but we didn't know the heart of the person "On Fire" for Jesus. How about we all just be the ones on fire for Jesus.

 

I have a lot of friends who are in sin, who are Atheists, who are living "great" lives, who feel they don't need God that they live lives the way they want to because that's all life is. I continue to pray for them, not that they would have to go through some traumatic experience to make a turn around, but that they would realize themselves that Christ is Life and run to Him.

Let Him Guide Your Life

Luke 5:4-6

- "Now when He had left speaking, He said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon answering said unto Him, Master, we have toiled all night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net. And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake."

This morning, for some reason I truely can't explain, I have been full of joy! Perhaps it was the 10 hours of sleep I had last night, but for whatever reason I'm extremely joyful! With this joy, I stepped out the front door and looked around and what did I see? Well, I saw my God's beautiful creation. How amaizing His work is, how His beauty shows through His masterpiece that we are able to call our home while we are here on earth. How truely blessed we are. So I began to thank Him, for all that He has done, for all that He is doing, and for all that He is going to do, when I realized that I hadn't yet read this morning. So I ran over to my room, grabbed my Bible, picked up where I left off in Luke and read this passage. I was blown away with these verses, especially in relation to what I was just praising Him for, so I just had to write it all down.

I had just sent out a mass SnapChat saying, "following The Lord will take you to places you would have never expected to ever be in." Then I read this, where we see Simon, jsut living his life, doing what he always does, and Jesus walks in and tells Simon to fish as He tells him to. Simon, adresses Him as "Master" which means we can tell he repects Jesus, he knows what He's all about, says, in my own words, "Master look, we've been doing this all night, a million different ways, but you know what, it can't hurt to try." Now before I get into saying what happens next, when I read this passage this morning, I immediatley looked back at my life. While it's not a very long life, I quickly noticed that I tried living my own way a million different ways. I knew Jesus, I knew He was my Master, I knew what He was all about, yet I did my own thing in a sense. Finally I come up to graduation from Highschool, I had been living my way, trying different roads, different paths of life for 17 years now. While for at least the first 10 years of my life I was obviously too young to really go out and rebel against my parents, I was living with the option of obeying them, or not. So now I graduate from Highschool, faced with the "real world," What am I gonna do? I feel The Lord telling me to go to Guatemala with Potter's Field and give a year of my life to Him, or I could stay home, wait a couple years without going to college, and work my butt off, and make some money and do whatever I want with it. I think this was probably the first time in my life where I actually said, "ya know what, moving to guatemala for a year sounds kinda crazy, and I don't even have enough money to do that, but you know what, It can't hurt to listen to the voice of God right? I mean worst comes to worse I won't get accepted into the program right?" So I put the application in, or in Simon's case, cast my net to the side Jesus told me, and now I am amaized with what He has done with just myself and my net. So what happened with Simon and his fishing? He caught so many fish that his net broke and in the next verses it says he had to call his friends over to help pull all the fish in.

In short, all I really wanted to post today was this fact that God will blow your mind all over the room if you would allow Him to. I am reading a book called Real Worship by Warren Wiersby right now. If we would worship our Lord with wonder and amazement, give Him our lives, you will be caught up in a whirl wind of blessings! I am living in Antigua, Guatemala because I cast my net on the other side. I am teaching children english, spreading the Love of Christ, teaching children the Bible, learning Spanish, meeting people from all around the world, and I'm learning so much more than I ever would have if I had just stayed home and worked. Now obviously The Lord works in different ways, this program isn't for everyone, but in whatever you are doing, just the Lord guide you because you have no idea where you might end up!

Going Hard For Christ

Mark 14:3-8-

"And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on His head. And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her. And Jesus said, "Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always. She hath done what she could: she is come a forehand to anoint my body to the burying."

Last Tuesday, a team from Oregan arrived here, and will stay for two weeks. So we decided to hang out with them a little bit and get to know these guys and perhaps encourage them to come to Ignite. Before Kids Club the following day, I was talking with a few of them about the Kids Club program in Antigua. They asked me how many kids usually come to Kids Club, I told them that we don't know, quite frankly it's a little hard for me sometimes because due to some rumored about circumstances, the number of kids went from 150ish to a max of 20. Anyways, the clock struck 1pm and it was time for kids to start arriving. A total of 6 children came that day. Personally I felt embarrised. It was my week to "lead" Kids Club and for what we had planned and the 12 extra college students we had visiting we only had 6 children. Once I started thinking like this I took it to prayer. Simply asking the Lord that He would give me an overflowing amount of Joy to be able to share with these kids. Long story short, we had an amaizing time with these children, and the team had a great time as well. That night, for some reason, a few of us interns decided to join the team with their nightly "wrap up" time. As they went around the circle telling their "highs" and "lows" of the day, it got to me. I asked them if they could be praying for me and my heart as I was feeling down today when I really shouldn't have because the number of children shouldn't matter. After my turn one of the team members said something I won't soon forget. He told me that his highlight of the day was watching me lead songs with the kids that came that day. He told me that because of the joy and excitement that I put forth he could see that what I was doing on that stage was for the Lord, and whether it was for 6 or 600 children I would have done the same thing becasue it was for the Lord. PRAISE GOD TO THAT! Talk about an answered prayer! That day I learned what the Lord was saying to His disciples in this passage. There is nothing better than giving our Lord everything you have. I this woman spared no expence when she anointed our King, so why do we? Looking at it, the Lord gives us talents, He gives us resources and He wants us to use them for His glory. I don't think the discples were wrong in thinking that the ointment should have been sold and then the money given to the poor, but giving what the Lord has blessed us with back to Him shows how much we love; and like His word says, we will be blessed in doing that. It makes me think of the "Gringos" I've talked to here who say that they are here to do volunteer work (contruction, helping at orphan homes, etc.) They are doing a great work, but if the Lord has given them a heart for people, they should be not focusing completely on phyisical help, but spiritual help. If they love the Lord and have a heart for people, use that to bring them back to the Lord. It's my prayer that I will never forgot that when we go all out for the Lord, we will be blessed by that.

Am I Satan?!

Mark 8:33-

"But when He had turned about and looked on His disciples He rebuked Peter, saying, "Get behind me, Satan: for you savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men."

Everytime I read about Peter in the Bible, actually, I think this goes for anyone who reads about Peter in the Bible, we look at him and his example and think, wow how is it that this guy can mess up so much. He lives with Jesus everyday, and claims to love Him, yet we see him falling short in many different areas. He knows what's right, and he knows what wrong, so why is it that we see him doing the wrong so many times? I mean The Lord told him that He was going to use him to be the foundation of the church, how is it that he was so love by God and yet messed up so much and was even, like we saw in this passage, called Satan!

If there is anyone I would hate to be called Satan by, it would have to be Jesus, not simply for the reason that He is my Lord and Savior and I would hate to have God mad at me, but because He has actually had face to face experiences with the devil, He actually has been around Satan and knows how disgustingly wicked he is. Know I'm not saying that we have no idea how wicked Satan is, but just holding on to the simple truth that Christ knows all, I think He knows a whole lot more about the devil than anyone else. But let's take a look here, why does He call Peter Satan? Jesus says because "you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." This stopped me for a minute, because this would qualify me as Satan. Jesus says in the next verse that "whoever will come after me must deny himself; take up his cross and follow me." If we are wanting to be a follower of Christ we cannot be holding on to anything that is of the world. The Lord will bless us if we walk with Him, whether that is a physical blessing or not, we will be blessed.

Now let's look back at Peter's walk with The Lord, I mean, my walk with The Lord. Because I do walk with The Lord. There isn't much difference in Jesus physically being in a room and Him being there spiritually. We like to think so, but if you think about it, Jesus was on the earth, and man was still wicked. So when we sit here and say, "man those guys where so lucky! They actually walked and talked with Jesus! It must have so much easier to faith in Him!" We are just talking nonsense because He is the same today, yesterday, and tomorrow. He was with us then, now, and will always be just the same. Anyways, my walk with The Lord, which could simply be put as knowing what was right and what was wrong and doing what was wrong. Pretty much reminds me of Peter. Pridefully I say that, you know I have my moments when all I wanted was Christ, and I lived for Him in those moments. But my pride is quickly squashed when I think back to what I said and respond to myself with, "Moments Jonny? Really? Moments?" I have failed countless amounts of times and just like we see here in the life of Peter, it happens right after I do something out of faith for The Lord. So what is my point, what am I trying to get at. Honestly it's this simple truth, that we cannot possibly grow closer than we are to Christ and still hold on to some sort of garbage that we want to keep from the world. There are going to come times in everyone's walk with The Lord when you are going to be in a place where it's one thing, or the other. The world or Christ. I pray that we will continue to pursue Christ in those times.

　

What Are We Holding On To?

Mark 6:7-9 -

"And He called unto Him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits; and commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse; but be shod with sandals; and not put on two coats."

Being followers of Christ, whether it be at home or out in a foreign country, we know that we are all called to die to our selfish needs and be like Christ to others. While this passage speaks to me during my circumstances of being on a small team sent out from a bigger team onto a foreign mission field, this passage also applies to couples, families, kids in highschool; any Christians life really, considering that darkness is all around us, we are called to constantly be lights in this world. Here Chirst sends out His disciples in I guess we can call it, small groups. Before sending them out, He gives them power over the unclean spirits. Here we see that when we are going out into this world we need walk in the power of Chirst. We need to be faithful to recieve His power, that He wants to bestow upon us. If we know the fact that with Chirst all things are possible, then we should understand that without Christ, nothing is possible. While there are "good" people in this world, who love others, who go out and do volunteer work at hospitals and retirement homes, who take care of the homeless and the orphans, if they are not doing it for Christ, it will amount to nothing at the end of their lives. Continueing on in this passage, after He gives them His power, He tells them that they should take nothing with them but a staff and sandals and the clothes on their backs. After I read this, I quickly remembered that our God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He tells them to keep a staff on them; do we know anyone who has used a staff because the Lord told them to? Here Christ is telling them what they need; shirt, pants sandals, staff and Him. God did amaizing things through men in the Old Testiment, and while I don't want to make extreme assumtions, I feel like most of these men had clothes, a staff, and God. Now I'm not saying that we need to all go out and buy staffs, but the picture here is very clear to me that all we need to serve Christ and to survive in this world is our clothes, our shoes our Lord, and what He has given us to use for His glory. While we all have spiritual gifts, we all have phyiscal gifts that we can use every day to bring glory to our Father, thats why He gave us these gifts in the first place. Like I said before, Our God is the same yesterday, today, and tomrrow, so if He told Joshua that He has given him every place that the sole of his foot will tread upon, and He has told us to not worry about what we will eat or wear because He feeds the foul of the air and He clothes the grass of the field, He will take care of us if we would allow Him to.

I will pray in the mornings that I will use the gifts God has given me to the fullest of my abilities!

The Lord Appoints Posistions In Ministry

Mark 5:19 & 43-           
        

          "Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, "Go home to thy friends and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee"; And He charged       them straitly that no man should know it..."

As we all probably know, or at least can tell, there are many different roles or aspects that take part in the ministry. One thing that I, personally, have always dealt with, was the issue with asking God, "Why is that person in that posistion," or "Why am I not doing that?" When I was in, I believe, 10th grade, the youth pastor who had been teaching the newly developed middleschool/highschool aged teens, stepped down from his postition. I still have no idea why he stepped down, perhaps because he had been fed up with our immaturity, but when he stepped down, the senor pastors 19 year old son began to take over. Now, while I didn't know him personally, I knew enough about him to know that I didn't like him, and to know that when he and my older brother where in school together, he wasn't exactly the nicest kid around. Now, I am supposed to look up and respect this person who, in my mind, didn't have the best reprutation? wrong. At least thats what I told myself. Honestly, while he was still a student in the youth group I couldn't stand this kid. He was always so prideful in everything we seemed to do. The first year the youth group performed at our Chirstmas program, I couldn't stand how much this kid wanted to do everything up front on stage. He also became the worship leader, and once again I began to see this self centered attitude in the way he performed. One summer, the youth went to California for a Youth Camp. While there, he and I butted heads so much we could've given eachother comas; but it was probably after that year when I felt God tell me, "Jonathan, you know this to be true... that nobody wins with a headbutt." While that may sound a little silly, it made me ask, Why am I continuously butting heads with this guy? Why have I seemed to purposefully set it on my heart to do this? I needed a heart change. So I asked Him for it, and He gave it to me. Now, Nate has been leading our youth group for 3 or 4 years now, is married, and has done amazing things for our Church and our community, because he had listened to God. We don't know why God asks us to do some things. We don't know why He tells some to go and be a witness, and others to stay at home, but the truth is, we don't have to know. It's His plan and we need to obey whatever He tells us to do. He has something planned for everyone, so when He tells you to be a witness, be that witness for Him; and when He tells you to stay at home, you stay because He told you to.

Faith Can Move The Mountains We Need To Overcome

Matthew 21:21-

"And Jesus answered them and said unto them, 'Verily I say unto you, if you have fatih, and doubt not, you shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if you shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done'."

As this is the start of our first week of our feild time here in Guatemala, I can already see the enemy trying to attack in anyway he can, whether it be from sickness, or just the smallest things like making the decision on which board game to play. Of course the last thing we as a team want is any kind of division among ourselves, however as every team who has gone before has told us, "You are going to get tired, you are going to rub one another wrongly, and there will be times when you do not get along with eachother as a team." Yesterday while out into to town I joking brought up that fact, saying that we should start hating eachother now, that way we can spend the last four months learning to love eachother and end on a high note. However, after making that comment I remembered Philippians 4:12-13- "I know how to be abased and I know how to abound, in everywhere and in all things I haved learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." And then it hit me; I don't know what will come ahead and I don't know exactly what the other teams went through, but I need to know that whatever is going to come my way, that If I trust on my God, Christ, that He will lead me on the straight an narrow path and I will not wander astray, and if we all (Team Guat.) are trusting in Christ, putting 100% of our faith in Him, giving Him our all, we will never fall of the path He has set before us, and the firey darts from Satan will not be an issue. The Bible says that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we can tell a mountain to go for a swim and it will. I'm paraphrazing of course, but this is one of the many things that I know the Lord is going to teach me during my time on the field, the concept of having true faith in Him. I believe it starts with this team He has placed me in to be apart of.

Encourage my team in this truth. Let's be a team who keeps Christ first, not just as head knowledge.

I.B.S. #52

Psalm 133:1

- "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for the brethen to dwell together in unity."

This verse, I believe, encapsulates this weeks theme of unity. In the sense that when we as believers, brothers and sisters in Christ dwell, fellowship, reside in uinty, it will be pleasant. This makes me think of heaven and how we will be in constant unity, and life will be pleasant and good. While we will be physically united with God, and there will be no way for sin or anything of the devil to reside with us, we can do the same spiritually here on earth. If every individual in a group of Christians would have their hearts centered on Christ, then there will be perfect unity. Our God never changes, He has shown us that this has happened before, so we know it is possible today. Knowing that we can reach this pleasantness and goodness of being unified with eachother and with Christ, I think we should be purposing it in our hearts to achieve this goal. For each of our teams, as we are all going out in a week or so, to always keep it in our minds that we won't be unified as a group in Christ is not the center of everything that we are doing. The number one thing we need to remind ourselves is to seek Him first, and let Him take control of ourselves. He's going to do wonders in all of us, so let's all take a step back and let Him work, so that we may be a blessing to others.

Appologize to all for being a jerk sometimes, I need to work on stepping back and not trying to grab back onto the wheel. Pray everyday for everyone in Class #6.

I.B.S. #51

Acts 2:46-47

- "And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the Church daily as should be saved."

Here we see that when we have Christ as the center, when we fellowship with eachother and keep Him as our conversation or continually love eachother as He did unto us, we will want to remain in fellowship with others. Here we see that after all has passed, they go with one another, together, to the temple to eat yet while they are eating, they are still praising God and being lights to one another. It's funny how sometimes we, at least as guys, can go out together for a Bible study or a night of accountablility, and leave the place with a completely different mindset than we had going in. For example, last thursday we went to McDonald's after dinner for Ice Cream, where Elijah shared his message on... exactly, honestly I don't remember off the top of my head what he shared on exactly. It was a great message and I learned from it, I can tell you that I learned how important it is to give everything up to God, but I'm sure that was just part of his message. The first thing that just came to my mind just now about that night, was the thought, "You know, that McDonalds plays some dope music." They had a little BackStreetBoys, Beyonce, Katy Perry, Adele, and I left with Timbaland stuck in my head. All this confession to say that when we don't keep the conversation around Christ, it's easy to get off track. Now don't get me wrong, Elijah didn't plan for them to play dopesauce music, but when we go to fellowship with others, we need to check our own hearts and make sure that we keep Christ as the center, because I'm sure there was something he taught on, that I heard, but then quickly went out the other ear to make space for I Want It That Way.

Write "Be Alert" on my hand.

I.B.S. #50

Acts 2:44-45

- "And all that believed were together, and had all things in common; and sold their possesions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need."

This is going to sound alot like my last I.B.S. for the reason that here we see that through the power of the Holy Spirit, all the bleievers were brought together. It then says that they all had things in common, and I think the one thing that all believers need to have in common, just one thing, thier love for Christ. First off, if we don't have a true love for Chirst, then we won't ALL be brought together in that love. This of course points back to what I wrote on yesterday in that we need to examine our own hearts and make sure we are doing our role as part of the body of Christ. I do believe it helps for beievers to have some common interests, so that we can grow together in that way, but at the end of it all we need to find the roots in our relationship in Jesus Christ. Now the second verse here is something I found really cool, and is something I see still going on in the Church today. As we are unified in Christ, we see a family type bond take place, and if there's one thing my family does, it's helping others out in their times of need. Meaning, when we as the body of Christ see a brother or sister in need, physical or spirititual, and we know we can help that person, we need to be. It takes us right back to J.O.Y. if the other is in need and you can help them, you should, especially if you feel the Lord telling you that He wants you to do so.

Look for ways to help out my friends and family, even in the little things.

I.B.S. #49

Acts 2:43

- "And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles."

This verse here is reffering to the Holy Spirit, and the power that the apostles attained by truely fearing the Lord. At first glance of reading this verse, I wasn't sure of how we can see an example of this weeks theme "Unity" clearly. However, I believe that this verse is showing me that when everyone in the ministry has Christ as the center of their hearts, He uses the Holy Spirit to move in amaizing ways we could never expect. We need to remember that the only way that we can have true unity with man, is if our heart with Christ are in alinement. Of course I believe thats a very difficult task for us, but when our hearts with Christ are in check, everyones hearts, there will be a perfect unity and we will all be used by the Spirit. Again, our hearts need to be inline with Chirst, we need to check our own hearts for this, we can't look at someone else and tell them that they need to fix thier hearts. We can only control what we do, lets allow the Spirit to control us.

Encourage my team to continue to die to self daily, and to check our hearts so that there will be perfect Unity in our team now and in the field.

I.B.S. #48

Acts 2:42

- "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers."

"They continued steadfastly," in other words, they went on and devoted themelves to the doctrine, they continued to study with a heart that wanted more and more of the Word. In my walk with Christ, I know there have been times where I might slow down in my race. If I ever take a day off in reading the Word, it only seems to follow that I will go that whole week without opening my Bible. I realize in this verse that there is one thing I need more of, something that will keep me in the Word daily; I think people really underestimate the importance of this part in ministry, fellowship. I was born in Miami and my family lived there until I was about ten. From my birth up until I was about 7, were attended a Church called Jesus Fellowship. I had always thought that was a strange name for a Church, mostly because there were all these First Church's or Calvary Chapel's or Central Assembly's. Now I see however that really is the reason for going to a Church, the fellowship with other believers. On our second group street witnessing day, I met a man named Aaron. I asked him if he was a Christian, he told me yes but there was something about the way he looked at me and the tone he used when he answered me that made me think he was somewhat of sceptical about the faith. As our conversation continued, I found out that he was visiting Guatemala from Brazil and that while he was a Christian he stopped going to Church because every Church he has been too either adds to the word or takes away from the word. He told me that he can grow in his relationship with Christ just fine if he just sat in his room and read his Bible. I told him thats true, but going to Church and fellowshipping with other believers is a huge part of our walks with Christ. I then told him about Calvary and that they read through the Bible and that they should have a Calvary Chapel planted there. While we are running our individual races, we are running this race with the other racers. These are our brothers and sisters and we need to love them that way.

Pray that He will continue to remind me that the people in my life arent distractions, but lessons.

I.B.S. #47

Matthew 5:20

- "For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."

The Pharisees know the law, the scribes know the law. I could never be as perfect as the Pharisees or scribes who not only know the law and abide by it, but they also memorize it and in a sense have it embeded deep into their minds. However these people are the ones who constantly show us, in the Bible, the difference in realtionship and religion. I see that the Pharisees and scribes were the ones who were constantly being rebuked by Christ because they held so firmly to the law of the Old Testiment, that they would condemn others for trying to grow personally to Christ. A lot of friends of mine and I believe just people in general, get turned off of Christianity because they say, "oh it's just a bunch of religion," "Christians are just abunch of stuck up people who think they're better than everyone else because they don't break their laws." It's sad to me that people view Christianity this way, but sometimes I cannot blame them for thinking so. The truth of the matter is that alot of Churches and people who say they're Christians do act this way. Honestly the problem with this lies in the pride of that person. Once we realize that we all need is a relationship with Christ, and that He loves everyone and came to save everyone, and that we are no better than the next person, we should be humbled

Read the Ten Commandments and think about how many times I have broken those laws. Ask myself why I judge others.

I.B.S. #46

Matthew 5:19

- "Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven."

All of my life, or at least as far back as I can remember, my father has always reminded my brother and I to "Be part of the solution and not the problem." If there is one thing I really regret doing, it's not just sinning, but also encouraging others to do so as well. I guess I kind of felt that if I was only one doing these bad things, then I look even worse than everyone, so I figured I would take down as many other kids as I could with me. Which of course is so wrong, and as we see here, Jesus tells us that if we break these commands and then teach others to do the same, we will be the called the least in the kingdom. It was especially sad to watch these people I brought into sin because after I turned away from those sins, they continued to go in that way. He then says in this verse that whoever practices and teaches the commands are great. I think it goes without saying, being a Christian or not, we all want to be considered great in heaven. Man is aways striving to be great in everything that they do, so it only seems fitting that we should want to be one of the greats in heaven. Just like in any sport or any activity, if we practice at it, we will become great at it.

I need to practice these commandments that Christ has given us to become great in heaven.

I.B.S. #45

Matthew 5:18

- "For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."

The law will last as long as the earth lasts. Yet when the earth has faded away so will the law and all that will be left is Jesus, which is everything. In the end, the heavens and earth will pass away, the law will no longer exist, all the prophecies will be fulfilled and God will reign forever. Where there will be no more pain, no more suffering, no more cheating, lying, sexual immorality, stealing, cursing. There will be no more need for a law because we will be in the presence of God and He cannot reside with sin. The things of this world will fade away with the wind, but our Lord will rule forever; how can something that is temporary live in a world that is eternal?

Need to focus my mind on living for the heavenly things.

I.B.S. #44

Matthew 5:17

- "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy but to fulfill."

When Jesus came to this earth, He fulfilled every prophecy that was made about the coming Messiah. One thing that I really like about reading these prophecies in the Old Testiment and seeing them come true in the New Testiment, is seeing that Jesus fulfills them all, yet He doesn't fulfill them in the way that man would have predicted Him to do. They prophecied that the Messiah would come and rule over all the earth and they probably expected someone who would, physically, be mighty or strong in stature. However, we know He came as the innocent lamb who ruled and still rules the whole earth with His unfathomable power. He came here not to be serve but to too serve, through these acts of service we see man stand in awe and wonder at why a man who claims to be the Son of God would wash the feet of men, or sit and talk with the prostitutes and theives. He fulfilled the law and He fulfilled the prohecies, Jesus Christ is Lord over all, and we can say that in full confidence.

Before I pray, I need to seriously think about the God that I am praying to.

I.B.S. #43

Matthew 5:16

- "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

This little light of mine I need to let it shine. Whatever we are doing, we need to realize that we are representing something. When we go on trips with our school, we are representing them, when we go on trips with our church we are representing them, but if we look past our school, church, parents, sports teams, we see that all Christians are representatives of Christ. As far as I can tell, all of Gods other creations, meaning everything else but humans, I can look at and say wow an amaizing God made that, do you see how beautiful that sunset is, or that volcanoe is, or how the humming bird functions. Now, don't get me wrong, the human body is beautifully made, it's incredible to think about all that goes on in our bodies in just three seconds. However, it's sad in a sence that God created everything for a purpose, and us humans are the only ones to mess up. We're the ones who seek sin and deny God for all that He has blessed us with. Then again, perhaps I am looking at man in the wrong way to think that we are all a bunch of screw ups. Perhaps I need to be looking at the heart of man like our Lord does.

Pray that God will help me to see man in this way.

I.B.S. #42

1 Corinthians 9:27

- "But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway."

We arent to run this race aimlessly, as the previous verse says, as if we are fighting against the air. We need to be putting our bodies into subjection of what we are doing. If we are preaching to others the truth, but aren't practicing what we preach, we won't understand what we are telling others to do. Intresetingly, Jesus seems to ask that we do all that He did, and while that seems impossible because He is God and we are sinners, we can do what He did through the power of Christ. Jesus asks us to love others, He did that; Jesus asks us to care for others, He did that as well; Jesus asks us to pick up our cross everyday and die to ourselves, He did that as well. This is one of the greatest things that I love about Christ, that we can look at His life and see that He will never ask us to do something that He didn't do. It makes me think of the episode of the Office where Michael Scott is looking for the employee to take his position. He makes up a bunch of strange challenges to see who can handle each challenge, yet they're challenges that he wouldn't do himself because they were too dangerous. As we are representing Christ and trying to bring His word to others, we cannot tell people what to do but then not live that example out. Christ lived His life and only asks that we do what He did. Only through Christ are all things are possible.

Write "don't doubt" on my arm.

I.B.S. #41

1 Corinthians 9:26

- "I therefore run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as once that beateth the air."

Therefore we run! Paul has just given us all pretty good reasons in the verses before this why we should be running the race for Christ. It's the only race worth running, because we will recieve the prize that actually matters. One of the hardest things that I see in others lifes and my own life, is running the race without uncertainty. He says here that when we run with uncertainty, we fight. If theres one thing I know, it's that whoever fights against God will lose. His will will be done. Therefore I need to make sure that I am running the race and not fighting against anything He has said.

Everymorning walk the campus and pray.

I.B.S. #40

1 Corinthians 9:25

- "And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptable crown; but we an incorruptable"

We strive for an incorruptable crown. That's an encouragement for us. This week as we have the theme of discipline, its so refreshing to know that all that we go through, all our trails and tribulations, when we get through them with Christ, we will recieve an incorruptable crown. It kind of makes me sad to know that there are other people who are living in the world and for the world and who, because of thier descisions, are going through lifes hardships and when they reach the end of thier lifes, their crowns, their medals, their achievements will crumble at the judgment seat. It actually upsets me that the life I was living was a lie from the Devil that I fell for. With all the stupid stuff I was doing, I would have entered eternity and all I was on earth wouldn't matter. We need to be telling other people about Christ on a personal level. I know that I would rarely share the gospel with friends, but how in the world could I care about my friends and not tell them the truth.

Write Tell ALL on my arm