DEVOTIONALS
Devotional 1
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”—Galatians 6:7
Do you know someone who drinks and does drugs and yet his life isn’t messed up at all? What about someone who never studies and yet she passes every test in school? Do you know people who reject God and really seem to get away with it? Yeah, the world is full of them: people who sow unhealthy seeds but *seem* to reap crops that are just fine. And yet you’ve probably always been taught that every sin has a consequence and that it pays to follow Jesus and keep out of trouble, right? So why don’t the pieces fit together all the time??
The truth is that sin really does have consequences, even though it doesn’t always look like it does. The person who drinks excessively has liver problems later on in life, just as the person who uses drugs even “recreationally” sets himself up for a number of health risks throughout life. The person who never studies may be a good test-taker but that won’t help her when she needs the information for a job or something else other than class. Most importantly, people who reject God may seem to get along fine; they may have lots of friends and opportunities for success, but in the end God will reject them if they reject Him (Luke 12:8-9). It’s the same with any other sin; the immediate results may seem favorable, but the final results are never good for the person who chooses to sow bad seeds. Someday, the person will have to eat from the crop that he or she planted, and you can be sure that the crop won’t taste good if it comes from seeds that started off bitter and unhealthy. In all truth, God is NOT mocked. It may look for the time being that people can get away with sinning and still have a good, fun-filled, and rewarding life, but at some point their sins will catch up with them—it will happen to all of us—and the Bible says that whatever a man sows he will also reap. Don’t be deceived, as Paul said, it really IS in your best interest to follow God’s plan for your life and to keep yourself from going off the pathway He has set before you as His child.
-HK
Devotional 2
“The Lord is my rock …”—2 Samuel 22:2
Have you ever seen a house without a foundation? Say like, one of those little huts on a beach somewhere, that is built out of palm fronds and grass? Ever see it last a windstorm?
Me neither. I can just see it now, hurricane and finally, nothing but debris. In Matthew 7:26-27:
“But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
Looks like that house did not have a firm foundation, wouldn’t you think? Now take a look at the verse 24 and 25 of Chapter 7:
“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rains descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did NOT fall, for it was founded on the rock.”
Now this house HAD a firm foundation, and it would not move because of it. This makes me wonder exactly what kind of a “rock” the wise man built his house upon. Well, in 2 Samuel 22:2 David says, “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer…” There is it. The rock is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Have you ever heard that praise song, “Jesus, You’re my firm foundation”? I think that praise song says it all about our “rock” being our “firm foundation.”
Is Jesus Christ our firm foundation, or have we built ourselves on the sand where when the rains descend, the floods come, and the winds blow, will we withstand each storm?
-This devotional was written by Ashley K.
Devotional 3
"Simon answered, 'Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.'"--Luke 5:5
Simon Peter was a fisherman by trade. Fishing was his job, and he was good at it—an expert you might say. So can you imagine what went through Simon’s head when Jesus, who was quite obviously no a fisherman told him to go out into the deep water and go fishing? Simon and his partners, James and John, had been fishing all night and hadn’t caught one single fish. And here was this man, the son of a carpenter, telling him to go back out where he’d just been fishing. The thing Simon didn’t know was that Jesus was more than a carpenter’s son; he was the son of God.
In the end, Simon obeyed, and he caught some fish. Okay, maybe a bit more than “some” fish. Can you imagine two fishing boats literally filled with fish, so much so that they began to sink? Yep, that’s how many fish Simon caught! Now that is a miracle. Looks to me like Jesus (the “non-fisherman”) did know a bit about fishing.
So next time God asks you to do something, don’t put Him in a box. The things that seem impossible, or maybe improbable, to man are a breeze for God. Whatever you do, don’t stand in the way of a miracle just because you don’t think God’s plan will work. It may not work for us humans, but with God, all things are possible.
-This devotioanl was written by Rachel K. (My sis!)
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