Welcome To The Snack Shack!!

God's Word is compared to food all throughout the Bible. The reason: as humans we need food to survive, and as Christians we need God's Word to survive. Not only do we need food, but it's something we desire. Right? Well, God's Word should be something we desire too. It is full of nutrients that we need and flavor that can be compared to the best of physical food that's out there! We're talking gourmet here! :)
Now, along with the fried chicken and tri-tip...the ice cream and pie...and all those foods we put on our list of "favorites", are those vegetables like spinach and broccoli...or whatever it is that you eat only because you have to!
It's the same way with our Spiritual food, God's Word. There are those verses and stories that we have no problem reading and applying them to our lives (you know, those ones that promise blessings...), and then there's those verses that don't taste quite as good, those ones that are hard to understand or make you feel convicted. Those "vegetables" are just as important to read and apply to your life. We need them to survive!
So, take a few minutes and check out these "snacks" from God's Word. Remember, we don't live on bread alone...physical food is great, but we need God's Word, our spiritual food, too! Every word that comes from the mouth of God.... that's real food!


Snacks available in this issue...

Devotionals Daily Bread Fruit Bowl




DEVOTIONALS

Devotional 1

“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”—John 14:6

THE way…THE truth…THE life. So many people would like you to believe that there’s more than one way to “reach God”. Several paths that lead to the top of the mountain… Oh, that sounds nice to be able to please everyone, tolerate anything. But it’s just not scriptural. There is no unity between Christianity and other religions. Truth is not relative or up for debate or interpretation. You can have your opinions, views, and “beliefs”, but God’s Word is the bottom line, and He says that no one comes to Him except through belief in and acceptance of Jesus and His sacrifice.

I am wary of the whole “religions binding together, to become one, finding the common ground and accepting and embracing any differences” idea that many people these days confuse with “respecting each other’s freedom of religion”. It has become “narrow-minded” to believe that there is in fact just one way to get to Heaven and to ever see God. It’s “prejudiced” to express that the Bible could be right and that those who don’t come through Jesus are on the wrong track. Now, I’m in NO WAY saying that I believe it’s right to go around judging. It’s God’s place to judge, not ours. And I’m not saying that we are to be intolerant of people, no matter what they believe. We are to love them… and if we follow Christ’s example, we are to *serve* them. But we can’t compromise the truth. We simply can’t give in and say that there are other ways when God says there is just one way! We owe it to the world to let them know the truth…not force it down their throats or nag them, but stand on the Word of God and Christ’s teachings. We can’t waver and say, “Well, maybe….there could be other ways…I believe this way and you believe that way, but both of us are right in our own way.” And finally, we owe it to God not to compromise His truth. Christ didn’t compromise in His mission when He went to the cross.

Whether it feels good or not, whether we like it or not, and whether we want it that way or not, there is ONLY ONE way, truth and life. It comes through Jesus Christ, and nothing else. Stand on that, it’s the Word of God.

-HK


Devotional 2

“But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?”—Galatians 4:9

This is a question that I often think about. How can someone who has known God and the freedom of His truth turn away from all that God has to offer, and back to the sin that had enslaved him in the past? It seems irrational, and yet people do it all the time! How does it happen? What causes a free person to chain himself back up? A happy person to return to misery? I believe I have an idea…

A person begins to backslide when he is not close to God. When he is not reading and studying the Bible, and not praying and seeking God on a regular basis. The absence of these very important elements results in the person becoming weak and vulnerable to temptation and deception. The first temptation that Satan will bring upon a weak and vulnerable Christian is whatever sinful desires he used to indulge in. Satan figures, “hey, it worked before, let’s try it again…” He makes it seem “okay” and even pleasurable, and soon the Christian begins to fall. This is especially applicable when the deceived Christian has little knowledge of God’s nature and His word. It’s much easier to trick someone who will have a harder time recognizing it as a trick.

The answer—maintain your relationship with God. Study His word, pray without ceasing, seek His will in your life, and don’t ever stop growing as a Christian. It isn’t enough to know God, you have to know Him so well that you can easily spot temptation and deception and recognize it for what it is. And above all, keep communication with God. Be honest with Him when you feel yourself slipping. If you stop talking to Him because you don’t feel worthy anymore or you don’t want to feel convicted, you will fall away and build up walls instead of building bridges. Then the old sinful desires will appear comforting because they are familiar. Don’t let yourself get to the point where you desire to be enslaved all over again. Be faithful to God even when you don’t feel like it, and it will be harder to fall or turn away.

If you have backslidden and returned to the bondage of flesh and sin, know this: God will accept you with open arms and forgive you if you’ll just repent and come back to Him. He wants to give you that freedom in exchange for the bondage you’ve returned to. It’s not too late to come back to God, and you haven’t gone too far away. He loves you now just as much as He loved you before you turned away, and just as much as He loved you when He died on the cross for your sins 2000 years ago. Return to the truth, because the truth will set you free.

-HK


Devotional 3

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
His love endures forever.”--Psalm 136:1

There’s a saying that is common around my church that goes like this, “God is good, and He does great things!” I’ve also heard one that says, “God is good ALL the time!” Both proclaim something worthy of repeating over and over: God is good! Isn’t that the truth? But sometimes we forget to thank Him for His goodness…for His love that never gives up on us. Sometimes we get so busy and caught up in the details of everyday life, that we don’t stop and take the time to thank God for His unchanging goodness to us. Even in our prayers, the thanking part often gets rushed or skipped over, crowded out by needs and wants, whether our own or those of other people. And how many times do we forget to thank God when He answers those prayers? Relief floods over us…sure, we’re grateful. But do we voice that to God? Do we tell Him how thankful we are that He takes care of us, that He is so good to us? Sometimes we do, but sometimes we forget that part and just move on to new prayer requests. Friends, we need to take the time to thank God often. He is always good, His love endures forever, shouldn’t our thanks be just as long-lasting? I think so! Shouldn’t our appreciation be evident all the time? Yep! So lets do it…lets give God the thanks that He deserves, because He is good and His love endures forever!

-HK



Daily Bread

An apple a day might keep the doctor away, but what about a Proverb a day? What's the importance of reading scripture daily, you might ask. Well, daily reading of God's Word is like eating daily. Do you like to eat daily? I sure do!
When you starve yourself of God's Word and don't take the time to read and study it every day, it's kind of like starving your physical body: you become a little weaker...you get kind of irritated and angry easily...you lose out on nutrients that you need...it's just not very comfortable, and besides, it's not very much fun!
Proverbs is a good book to read a chapter of every day. It has 31 chapters, and can be read in a month. The wisdom that is offered in these proverbs are written by Soloman, the wisest person (well, except for Jesus) who ever lived. But they are inspired by God. I guarantee that they will help you! But of course, you can't just read them, you have to actually use them for them to work. :)
(Note: Proverbs are good...but they aren't the only thing you should read each day. Pick a verse or section of verses from another book of the Bible to read also for best results.)

Day 1

Proverbs 1
 Day 2

Proverbs 2
 Day 3

Proverbs 3
 Day 4

Proverbs 4
 Day 5

Proverbs 5
 Day 6

Proverbs 6
 Day 7

Proverbs 7
Day 8

Proverbs 8
 Day 9

Proverbs 9
 Day 10

Proverbs 10
 Day 11

Proverbs 11
 Day 12

Proverbs 12
 Day 13

Proverbs 13
 Day 14

Proverbs 14
Day 15

Proverbs 15
 Day 16

Proverbs 16
 Day 17

Proverbs 17
 Day 18

Proverbs 18
 Day 19

Proverbs 19
 Day 20

Proverbs 20
 Day 21

Proverbs 21
Day 22

Proverbs 22
 Day 23

Proverbs 23
 Day 24

Proverbs 24
 Day 25

Proverbs 25
 Day 26

Proverbs 26
 Day 27

Proverbs 27
 Day 28

Proverbs 28
Day 29

Proverbs 29
 Day 30

Proverbs 30
 Day 31

Proverbs 31




The Fruit Bowl

In Galations 5:22,23 we find a listing of the Fruit of the Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control. We're told in God's Word that people will know us by our fruit. That's how they will be able to tell if we are followers and servants of Christ. The Bible also tells us that God will cut off the branches that don't bear good fruit! Yikes! This fruit thing is pretty important, isn't it?!
Well, here we will feature one of these "fruits" in each issue, starting with the first fruit mentioned: Love. Do you think that the "fruit" you bear is good? Do you think that people are able to tell that you are a Christian by the way that you act or respond in different situations?
Let's take a look at this issue's featured fruit...Goodness!



GOODNESS

The Bible tells us that God alone is good (Mark 10:18), and yet it also lists “goodness” as a fruit of the Spirit that followers of Christ should be producing. This seems like a paradox, but in actuality the two back each other up rather than contradict each other. God alone IS good, and there’s no way that you can be good or produce good deeds on your own. But you CAN and SHOULD mirror God’s goodness in and through your life. As Christians, we represent God, whether we like it or not. People watch and they listen, and they connect the things that you do to what Christianity is all about. It’s important that we mirror God’s love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control etc. These are the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit that we make evident in our lives as we grow in Christ and become “imitators of God” (Ephesians 5:1). Though goodness is not something that we can obtain or produce on our own, with God’s grace and help we can portray His goodness in the things we say, do and think.

What is goodness, anyways? The dictionary defines it as: excellence, and virtue. Excellence is to be the best; first class. Virtue is “conformity to a standard of right; morality; a particular moral excellence”. So, if we are to bear fruits of goodness, we have to be “first class”, meaning that we can’t settle for being usual or following the norm. Now, I’m certainly not saying that we should be prideful, because the Bible says that God gives grace to the humble but opposes the proud (James 4:6). But we can’t be satisfied with being just like the world. The world has no virtue in it, not real virtue at least.

Webster’s thesaurus lists righteousness, rightness, uprightness, and morality as synonyms to the word goodness. Again, the first thing that comes to mind for me when I think of righteousness is that our righteousness is like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). Getting to the point of “goodness” or “righteousness” seems truly unachievable. It’s almost discouraging. But this just underlines our need for God. With God, all things are possible. It can’t happen without Him though; goodness doesn’t come naturally or through anything other than the Most High God.

How can we possess and then produce this goodness? Do you just automatically learn the secret when you become a Christian? If it was that simple, we wouldn’t need to be reminded and told the importance of portraying it in our lives. I believe that there is only one way to become good, righteous, moral, virtuous etc. Have you ever heard the saying, “you become what your friends are”? If you want to produce goodness, then you have to “hang out” with the One who is good. Become close to God, seeking Him and praising His name all the time. Follow His commands, and learn His ways. Get to know Him. Of course, as sinners, we’re never going to reach the point of excellency and righteousness of God, but by growing close to Him, we will learn how to produce goodness. And we’ll learn about goodness, what it really is and why it is so important. God is the best teacher, and we can learn a whole lot by observing His nature. So, to be good you must be like God. To produce goodness you must “produce” Godly deeds.

On another note, I realize that goodness is not even something that many teens want to attain. Terms such as “goody-goody” or “goody-two-shoes” make it seem like being good is actually bad. Hmmm…how interesting. It just goes to show that we should be trying to please God rather than people. Galatians 1:10 says, “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” 3rd John 11 declares, “Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.” What a profound statement that is. Basically, if we are from God, we will be imitating good, but if we imitate evil we don’t know God. When all is said and done, it won’t matter what your friends or anyone else thought of you…it will just matter if you’ve known God or not. And if you’ve known God, it will have been evident in the good things you’ve done. Goodness is not something that you want to dismiss or stay away from, it’s something that you should definitely strive to have.

Sometimes, okay most of the time, being “good” is not the easy thing to do…but it is still really important! Sometimes you’ll actually suffer for “doing good” or doing the right thing. 1 Peter 2:20 tells us that if we suffer for doing good, and endure it, that is commendable before God. And Galatians urges us to not become wary in doing good, because at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 1 Timothy 5:25 reminds us that our good deeds are obvious, but even those that are not cannot be hidden. Then over in 1 Peter 2:12 we are given this charge: “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”

Goodness is definitely an action rather than a thing. Goodness does not maintain itself or just exist in your life, it takes effort…constant effort, in fact. Proverbs 11:27 says that He who seeks good will find goodwill. So it must be sought after to be found. Matthew 7:18 gives us a basic principle: “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.” Then it goes on to say that the trees that do not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. Ouch! Obviously, it’s important that we bear that good fruit. Finally, did you know that bad company (hanging out with the wrong people) corrupts good character? Well, it does! (1 Corinthians 15:33) You have to guard your fruit…protect your “goodness” or it could go bad.

If we focus on God and determine to follow His ways…if we seek after His will, and spend time in His presence, our “fruit” will flourish. We will produce “goodness” that shows the world the goodness of God. Our own goodness is nothing, it’s far from pure or righteous, but God’s goodness through us is perfect. That’s the goodness that we should be striving to show in our lives. It’s not about us or what we can do or who we are…it’s about God and who He is and what He can do in our lives and in the lives of those around us. So spend some time hanging out with God if you want to reach that seemingly impossible goal of goodness. Remember, God IS good; and goodness does not come apart from God. Excellency…virtue…righteousness…moral… none of those are obtainable without God. We need God active and alive and in control of our lives if we ever are to produce goodness…His goodness, because that’s the only way. More of God, less of us…that’s the secret to goodness; that’s the key to being or ding good.



PREVIOUSLY FEATURED FRUITS

LOVE

JOY

PEACE

PATIENCE

KINDNESS



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