Encouragement

Me and Stephanie (the girl whose Uncle I asked you to pray for) have started a forum where you can discuss these devotionals, ask questions, or request specific devotional topics. See it here:

http://z11.invisionfree.com/LivingWater/index.php?

Encouragement

My inspiration for this devotional came from Ephesians 4, which I read this morning. Heres some sections of it that really stood out to me (all are from The Message translation)

“Take on an entirely new way of life – a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces His character in you.”

“Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift.”

“Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk. Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and as thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.”

Let each word be a gift. I really like that.

As some of you know, I was depressed for a while. I have mostly come out of it, and looking back at it I think there is one thing above everything else that caused it: lack of contact with people. Specifically, lack of contact with encouragement.

Let me explain: me and Juana broke up quite a while back. I think us breaking up was the correct decision (and Juana agrees with me). However, when that happened, I lost a huge part of my life. Outside of camp (where we would see each other every day) we typically spent a day together each week, a good eight hours or so on average.

Now, Juana is a very, very encouraging girl. She always affirms those around her. I didn't realize it at the time, but when I broke up with her I took a enormous amount of encouragement out of my life.

I had come to take that encouragement for granted, and when it was removed I became depressed without even knowing why.

Encouragement is powerful. While I am glad I broke up with Juana, I'm definitely glad I went out with her in the first place. She brought about a lot of good changes in me and I'm a much better person now because we went out, because of how much she encouraged me.

Encouragement is powerful.

I think if the church had even a tiny grasp on encouragement and how to do it, a lot more people would come to church.

If the church were truly a place of love and encouragement, a lot more people would be drawn to it.

Instead we are haughty, and condemn “the world” and talk about how we're so glad we're “in the right” with God.

Jesus did not condemn, he loved, and he encouraged. We are called to be like him.

To the truly lost, Jesus never spoke condemning words. He was harsh to the pretenders and the arrogant, to those full of pride, but to the confused and hurt, he spoke with gentleness and kindness.

This is one of the reasons I love summer camp so much – encouragement abounds there. It doesn't matter what you do, and how badly you do it, there are people that will encourage you and tell you you're awesome regardless of whether or not you're good or bad at something. I think this is part of the reason some kids will come back to camp over and over – they are encouraged there, even if they are terrible at everything.

Another place I've found great encouragement is DRIME. DRIME is a street drama ministry group that goes out every Saturday night to Robson street in Vancouver to share the gospel. During the training times I have never once been put down for doing a part badly. The trainers always manage to suggest better ways of doing a part in a way that is encouraging and positive.

Encouragement is powerful.

Because of encouragement, I have gone from being extremely insecure, to much more confident in who I am and in what God has given me. I still am insecure in a lot of ways, but I've learned how to deal with those insecurities a little bit each day. I actually have the ability to go and talk to people now. Believe it or not, that used to be almost impossible for me.

Because of encouragement, I do these devotionals now. Theres no way I'd be doing these if I hadn't gotten so much encouragement from different people over the years.

I'm not perfect at this, I don't go around encouraging tons people each day, but I do try. I try to be alert – when I see someone do a great job at something, I try to tell them. When I see someone struggling and having a hard time, I tell them that I'm praying for them. I hope that these devotionals, in some way, encourage you in your walk with Christ.

Look at someone other than yourself for once, try and see how they're doing, and opportunities to encourage will present themselves.

This doesn't mean you can't criticize, sometimes harsh criticism is what someone needs. All of us need a good kick in the pants from time to time. But such criticism should never come out of anger, or bitterness, or feelings of superiority. All things you say and do should be born from a desire to see others grow.

And if you feel you must criticize, pray long and hard before you do it, and ask God to give you the right words and ways to go about such criticism. Criticism done wrongly can destroy someone and drive them from God, rather than towards him.

So I have a job for you – encourage somebody this week. For some of you this will be easy, because you've been doing it for a long time. For some of you, this will be very hard, because you've never experienced it and never done it.

But it is something that should be done. A encouraging word from the heart can mean the world to someone.

As you spend time trying to encourage people you will get better at it, and over time it will become second nature, and people will be drawn to you, because you make them feel like they're worth something.

Remember, God loves you like crazy.

God bless.

-Ricky

Feel free to forward this to friends or family you think would like it. If you get this as a forward and want to be added to the list e-mail me at yoda.at.stillwood@gmail.com (those are periods between the words yoda at stillwood)

I have a website where I have posted my old devotionals:

http://www.freewebs.com/yoda0017/index.htm

Or, you can read these devotionals at my blog:

http://yodahideaway.blogspot.com/

The Blessing of a Curse

The Blessing of a Curse

I'm sure a lot of you have a puzzled look on your face at this point, and don't worry, I will explain what the devotional title means.

This whole idea of being blessed with a curse is one that still relatively new to me. I don't remember exactly when it came to mind, but I think it was around six months ago or so.

I have struggled with the fact that I have a hearing loss for a long time now. At times its more subdued, and I don't think about it so much, but it has been on my mind a lot more lately after my experiences in asking for prayer for healing while on a missions trip with YWAM.

For those of you that are not aware of that story I'll try to sum it up: I thought God was telling me to ask people to pray for healing for my hearing, so I did so. I didn't get healed. I thought He told me to ask people again, I did. I didn't get healed. I then plunged into a week and a half depression that my outreach leader had to drag me out of (Libby, if you ever get this, know that I am still grateful to you for taking the time to come alongside me and help me through that, it meant the world to me then and it still does. You basically saved the second half of my outreach). Since then there has been one question that surpasses a lot of others in my spiritual walk “why wasn't I healed?” I was absolutely certain that God was telling me that I was going to be healed, and yet I wasn't.

This threw into doubt my ability to hear God, and I still doubt. I still fear to talk to God, because I don't know if what I hear in turn is what Hes actually saying.

I still don't fully understand why I wasn't healed then, but I do think I'm starting to understand why I was given this hearing disability in the first place.

See, who I am today has been affected deeply by my hearing loss, for good and for bad. Moreso for good than bad I think. If I hadn't been born with a hearing loss, I probably wouldn't be writing these devotionals today. Because of my hearing loss I didn't fit in at school, no one really wanted to be my friend. Because of that, I spent a lot of my time alone, and a ton of time reading. Because of those two things I'm a deeper thinker than most, I've found I have a much better ability to link ideas together, and I have a pretty rich vocabulary. How I ended up so verbose by never talking to people I'll never know though, I figure God was probably involved in that.

While the isolation and loneliness at the time was painful, God used that time to shape who I am today, to guide me, and to make my mind the way it is now. I don't see myself as better because I'm smart or because I'm good at writing, thats just the way I am, and I don't think that would have happened. I am who I am today because of my hearing disability. That curse has resulted in blessing in who I am intellectually and as a person.

Another area which is truly remarkable is my compassion. God has given me an enormous measure of compassion for other people. It amazes me at how quickly I respond in prayer to hearing of or seeing someone else in pain and difficulty. Even more amazing, is that I am compassionate even though I received treatment when I was younger that, by all accounts, should have made me bitter and angry towards the world. I know my mom said it was a miracle to her that I ended up with a heart of compassion rather than one of bitterness, and she thanks God for it.

So whats the point behind all these stories? Simple: God takes the worst of things and uses them for good, and sometimes brings amazing good out of the worst of situations. I can't say whether or not God wanted me to have a hearing loss, or if that was simply “one of those things that happens.” Nor can I say if the pain you might be experiencing now is something God planned, or “one of those things.” I can assure you that God is good beyond measure, and that He is more than able to take the pain you are experiencing today and use it to bring about so much good, if you'll let Him.

Blessings.

-Ricky/Yoda

Do Something

Do Something

Jesus' last words to his disciples included this command: Matthew 28:19-20

“go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

Being a Christian is not about believing in Jesus and then sitting around and doing nothing. We are to do something. What this looks like for each person individually, I don't know. I think part of what I'm called to do is write these devotionals in the hope that what wisdom God has given me will be of some help for you. Each person has a different job.

I can't remember which speaker said this... But I heard this one time: “God has made you to do something that no one else but you can do.”

God has made you who you are. Now, some of what you are now is corrupted by the world and by sin, and so one of the prayers I pray often is “God, make me into the man you have made me to be.”

There is this divide between who we've been made to be, and what we are. Part of this divide results in us getting complacent, or thinking “I can't do anything well... I'll just leave evangelism and that kinda stuff to someone else.”

You can impact someone in a way no one else can, you can influence someone else in a way no one else can, you can show someone else the love of Christ in a way no one else can.

Do something.

God did not make you to sit around on your butt and leave the work he made specifically for you to someone else (Ephesians 2:10).

Rather than rant on endlessly I'm going to let some other people speak for me. This is what the head of DRIME (www.drime.com) wrote in a recent newsletter:

“I do not want to waste my life.

My month in Kenya this past summer served as a poignant reminder of what life is truly about. As we met our new Kenyan DRIME leaders and spent time with our three DRIME Ambassadors; as we ministered alongside Pastor Timothy and saw many people give their lives to Christ, I was reminded, once again, of how short life is and that I desperately want to maximize every moment of it.

I am grateful to be surrounded by people – team leaders, DRIME members, fellow missionaries, DRIME supporters – who share this passion: to make our lives count for eternity and to cease our love affair with the things of this world.

I have been given time and money for a reason. I have been given health and strength so I can do something with it. I have been given resources, ideas, friends, and a team – not so that I can boast in what I have, but so that I can give it all back to the One to Whom it all belongs.

As John Piper* so passionately puts it:
“…May it, Lord, be this: that even if it costs our lives, the people will be glad in God…Take Your honoured place, O Christ, as the all-satisfying Treasure of the world. With trembling hands before the throne of God, and utterly dependent on Your grace, we lift our voice and make this solemn vow: `As God lives and is all I ever need, I will not waste my life…”

May you seek to live an un-wasted life in honor of our King.

Blessings,

Tanya (Steinhilber) Price

*”Don't Waste Your Life” (pg. 189)”

You might have no clue what to do... I've felt like that, I still feel like that sometimes. You need to know there is something you can do, something that God has specifically in mind for you. Pray about it a lot and try stuff out, God will show you where He wants you.

You might ask “but what about someone thats totally paralyzed? What can they do?” they can pray. Everyone can do something. Everyone can do their best to live out a life of love and be an inspiration to those around them. Please don't take that example as an excuse to say “well, I'll just pray then.” Pray about it, and see what God calls you to, and do that.

I'm going to finish with the lyrics from one of my favorite songs, its by Switchfoot and it's titled “This Is Your Life.”

Yesterday is a wrinkle on your forehead
Yesterday is a promise that you've broken
Don't close your eyes, don't close your eyes,

This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, is it everything that you dreamed
that it would be when the world was younger,
and you had everything to lose?

This is your life
And today is all you've got now
And today is all you've ever had
Don't close your eyes

This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, is it everything that you dreamed
that it would be when the world was younger,
and you had everything to lose?

Yesterday is a kid in the corner
Yesterday is dead and over

This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, are you who you want to be?

God bless

-Ricky/Yoda

Feel free to forward this to friends or family you think would like it. If you get this as a forward and want to be added to the list e-mail me at yoda.at.stillwood@gmail.com (those are periods between the words yoda at stillwood)

I have a website where I have posted my old devotionals:

http://www.freewebs.com/yoda0017/index.htm

The Breastplate of Righteousness and the Helmet of Salvation

Hi everyone. I have to forewarn you, my thoughts and ideas going into this devotional are not as fully formed or connected as my previous ones, I've been mulling over this one for a while and haven't really had it all come together in my mind. I've decided to start working on it anyways and see how it comes together. Hopefully this'll turn out alright.

This devotional might seem less practical and more theoretical or theological than my previous ones, but I still think its important. How you think does affect how you act; half of our Christian walk is changing the way we think. I'll try to tie it all together at the end and make it applicable to your life in an easy to understand and real way. Anyways, enough pre-devotional rambling, here it is:

Breastplate of Righteousness and the Helmet of Salvation

The breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation are the second and fifth piece of armor listed in Ephesians 6.

The breastplate was probably the piece of armor with the greatest life-saving potential. The breastplate covers the chest protecting the vast majority of your important organs. Going into battle without a breastplate was a sure way to die quickly. Wounds to the arms and legs might not be lethal – wounds to the chest often were.

The Helmet is similar – it protects the eyes which are pretty important (I like my eyes), and the brain which is definitely really important.

It's the same in the spiritual sense – without righteousness or salvation covering you, you're doomed. Unless you are righteous, you aren't getting into heaven, its that simple, and not getting into heaven means spiritual death.

How do we become righteous? As odd as it might sound, its as simple as asking Jesus to be Lord of your life. This is what salvation is, asking Jesus to take Lordship.

But what does “Lord” mean? A lord, in a historic sense, was someone who owned land. He would then have serfs on the land who worked the land and basically gave the vast majority of the food they raised to the lord. They were also required to fight for the lord if he required it. The lord, in turn, provided protection. Keep in mind this is a simplification of what was a rather complex system.

Essentially, “making Jesus Lord” means you give your life to Him. Everything. All your hopes, dreams, plans, ambitions, who you want to marry, you give it all to Him and He then gets the final say on everything. But how do we do that practically? It's not easy, it requires us to spend time in His Word, because its there we learn more of how God calls us to live. We have to spend lots of time in prayer, its a connecting point. Giving Jesus Lordship involves taking our eyes off ourselves, not thinking about what makes ME happy and how I feel about things, and putting our eyes on others – what makes him happy, how does that maker her feel? Making Jesus Lord means becoming like Him, being a servant to all, without reservation.

But how does salvation grant us righteousness? Is righteousness something we earn? No – its given.

I'll try to paint a picture of how this works by linking some verses together.

Isaiah 64:6 (NIV)
“all our righteous acts are like filthy rags”

Romans 3:10b-11 (NIV)
“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.”

Basically, our best attempts at being righteous fall totally and completely short.

I'm going to reference the next passage in both The Message and the NIV. I like each for different reasons, hopefully one of the translations will make good sense to you.
Romans 3:21-24 (The Message)
But in our time something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this. Since we've compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we're in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.

Romans 3:21-24(NIV)
21But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

So pretty much, no matter what, we can be righteous. Jesus gives us that righteousness, its what He did, not what we do.

Romans 8:1 (NIV)
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

I was going to try doing a “modern example” here, but I don't think anything I can come up with will really compare with the simple scripture on the matter, so I'll skip that.

Jesus takes our sentence, or our penalty. At the end of the world, we will all stand before God, and our offenses will be listed – rebellion to God, refusal to obey Him, slander and gossip against our friends and family, hurting others for no good reason, the list goes on and on. But when the sentencing is done, Jesus will stand and say “I took the punishment for this one” and the evidence against us will be torn up and we will be declared not guilty. The simplest way of describing what Jesus' sacrifice does for us is this: We do not have to pay the penalty for our sins.

(by the way, I don't know if thats actually how it will pan out, to be honest I've never made it through all of Revelation (my brain usually explodes after a few chapters). That was an analogy to give you an idea of how it works, our offenses towards God are essentially torn up and thrown away because of Jesus' righteousness which covers us)

Many that would say “I don't see how God could send someone to hell just for not following Jesus.” This represents a common misconception about God. See, the thing is, God is not only incredibly merciful and loving, he is also incredibly holy and just. This holiness and justice demands perfect punishment for wrongdoing, that punishment is eternal separation from Him, or hell (which I think won't be so much a burning pit filled with sulfur as much as it will be a place where everything good will be totally absent – no laughter, no fun, no joy, no peace. Nothing but strife and pain. Anyways, that was a tangent). But in His love for us, he provided us a way to escape the punishment for our wrongdoing – Jesus death. Jesus lived a perfectly holy, sinless, and giving life. He did not deserve to die the death he did, but he chose to die it anyways. He died so that we could be ransomed from our sin-filled lives of selfish indulgence into a joy filled life of service.

That is what it means when people say that being a Christian is free but it will cost you everything – it is gift given by God, but at the same time we have to give up our lives. The thing to remember though, is that our lives before Christ aren't worth anything in the long run anyways (by the long run I mean in the eternal scheme of things), so its not like we're really giving anything up. We essentially give God a gigantic bag of trash containing nothing of value (no pop cans or anything) and he gives back to us a check titled “an eternity with Me and an amazing joy filled adventure filled life.”

Wow.

So what does all this mean practically? Stop feeling like crap. Seriously, people can get so down over their sin. Sin happens, and while its not something to be trivialized, its not something to be overly focused on, because Jesus has taken care of our punishment.. I know what its like to be down over my sin, to get trapped in that feeling of “I'm such a screw up and I'll never improve. How can God possibly love me?” meanwhile God is saying “Ricky, I died so you don't have to worry about that. Your sin is covered. Now focus on what you can DO.”

What satan wants is for us to get all focused on our sin and so focused on beating our sin that we miss out on what Jesus has called us to do: love him and love others.

I'm not advocating a liberal attitude where sinning is totally okay, I'm advocating a more positive outlook to life. Sin happens, we are going to sin, there is no way around that. Spending time trying to sin less is valuable, since sin does affect our lives in a negative way, but I would propose that all of us need to spend more time trying to learn how to love others and serve others more effectively rather than focusing on trying to stamp out one sin. I think that when we learn how to focus more on loving God and loving others sin will largely take care of itself.

I fear I can't communicate this clearly, so I'll try phrasing it yet another way: shift your focus from the sin you commit to the good God has prepared for you to do. I have found that my greatest victories against my struggles in sin have been found in times of intense ministry. Like summer camp because it's up there that my sole purpose is to serve the campers and the other staff and show them the love of Christ in a practical way. I'm not focused on myself or my sin, I'm focused on others and what I can do for them.

This is an overall principle that I think we can all try more and more to operate by. Putting others first, and ourselves second. That isn't to say we don't give ourselves time to relax, because that is important because if we're stressed out we're less effective, but it is to say that others should always take priority. Maybe I have an easier time saying that since its almost impossible to get me stressed about anything.

Christ was the same way, he focused on others primarily and on himself secondarily. He spent years of ministry healing people, preaching, and showing love to the outcasts and then ONE EVENING worrying about his death. Perhaps there is something to be learned from that.

Anyways, I hope all that made sense and that it actually helps you. This has definitely felt like a weaker devotional, I hope and pray that God empowers it and uses the truth in it to make you stronger in Him.

BTW – any feedback you have regarding these devotionals is greatly appreciated. I'm not a big company sending out a mass e-mail, I'm a person sending out mass e-mails, and I have a definite need to be affirmed and to know that people are actually reading these! Thanks to those of you that have sent feedback thus far, its greatly appreciated.

Oh yeah, check up on the verses and references I use and the context those verses are found it. I could very easily be lying or using those verses out of context to promote some heresy that'll lead you all to destruction.

While I do think that what I've said is scripturally accurate (I was exaggerating to make a point), ALWAYS check on what people say, your pastor, me, your dog, anyone. Always check for yourself.

PS. feel free to forward this to friends or family you think would like it. If you get this as a forward and want to be added to the list e-mail me at yoda.at.stillwood@gmail.com (those are periods between the words yoda at stillwood)

I have a website where I have posted my old devotionals:

http://www.freewebs.com/yoda0017/index.htm

Honoring God Through Your Work

Honoring God Through Your Work

Hey everyone. I know I started the “armor of God” series, but I decided to take a bit of a tangent. This is based on things that have been on my mind recently, so I decided to write about it. I'll come back to the armor of God at some point.

Honoring God through my work. What does that mean? I've been in a bit of a slump coming down from camp this summer. Camp is such a wonderful place, theres such a sense of purpose, of belonging, of significance. Now, I'm just another university student going to school. What difference can I possibly make? How does me going any studying further the Kingdom of God?

As I thought about it, I came to realize that while it might not further the Kingdom in a direct way, it does in an indirect way.

See, God is either honored or dishonored (or pleased or displeased) through how I conduct myself at my current place of work: school. This applies to a whole wack of things: how do I treat my classmates? How do I treat my profs? How do I treat those in line in front of me in the cafeteria?

While all those are significant questions, I think the one that stuck out to me the most was “How will I go about my schoolwork?”

I'm part of this generation, and I think if theres a single work that sums up this generation well, it's “whatever.” We don't want to do the work, we just want to coast through life without having to put much effort into anything. Anything we enjoy we're cool with putting time and effort into, but schoolwork? Who enjoys schoolwork? That doesn't make ME feel good, so why should I waste my time with?

See, theres a couple problems with that kind of thinking. One – its selfish. I'm pretty sure you all know that selfishness is described as a bad thing in the Bible, so I don't think I need to go into that. Two – its lazy. Is laziness a sin? Heres two scriptures I found that talk about laziness and what it causes:

Proverbs 10:4
Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.

Proverbs 19:15
Laziness brings on deep sleep, and the shiftless man goes hungry.

So the basic theme of those two verses is: hard work pays off, laziness doesn't.

Heres another thing to think on, Jesus has called us to be different from the world. Not differnet in a “wierd” way, but different in a good way. When the world falls deep into sexual perversion, we are to hold ourselves to the highest standards of purity. When the world abandons itself to lying and dishonesty we are to be completely honest about everything. When the world resorts to cheating to try to get by we study hard and pass our tests because we worked at it (on a related note I read a scary article earlier today on the topic of cheating: thousands of students are now using Cell Phones with text messaging to cheat during tests. A poll conducted found that 53% of business students at a large university cheated in order to get higher grades). When the world is lazy and puts off projects to the last day, we are to strive to work ahead and do our projects in a way that we can be proud of.

Now, to qualify what I just said, when I say “when the world falls deep into sexual perversion, we are to hold ourselves to the highest standards of purity” I do NOT mean that when the world is generally a sexually pure place (which it never has been, but I'm speaking hypothetically here) that we can let ourselves get a bit lax in this area. Heaven forbid! What I'm trying to illustrate here is the need to pursue Gods standard of absolute excellence in everything, and even more so when the world is going the other way because we are called to “shine before men.” How better to shine before men than by pursuing excellence when everyone else goes for “just getting by.”

Heres some more scripture, while it doesn't have the word “laziness” in it, it has “sluggard” which is basically another word for “someone very lazy.”

Proverbs 13:4

“The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.”

Proverbs 15:19

“The way of the sluggard is blocked with thorns, but the path of the upright is a highway. “

Proverbs 20:4

“A sluggard does not plow in season; so at harvest time he looks but finds nothing.”

Proverbs 21:25

“The sluggard's craving will be the death of him, because his hands refuse to work.”

What I am saying is this: laziness or apathy when it comes to schoolwork, or any kind of work, is a sin. God did not create us to be lazy and coast through life making as little effort as possible. I hope that causes some kind of reaction in you, because I know it does in me. Laziness is a sin. Its hard to really see how it is one since its not as easy to see the consequences of it, but it is a sin.

Let me give you an example. Say your dad or mom gives you some kind of project to do. You blow it off, you blow it off, and then a day before they want it done you throw something together. Will your parents be proud of you or disappointed in you? I'll let you answer that. The same applies for God: he calls us to a standard of excellence in our work, no matter what kind of work that is, and is disappointed when we blow it off and make something that'll get you a passing grade and that's it.

I'm not saying that people that get Cs are bad, or that they're sinning. I'm not saying that people that get A's are holy and on the right track. I'm saying that people that COULD get A's but get C's instead are in trouble, because they are not using the giftings God has given them to their fullest measure. Case in point:

Matthew 25:14-28

14"Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. 15To one he gave five talents^[a] of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. 17So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. 18But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.

19"After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.'

21"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

22"The man with the two talents also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.'

23"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

24"Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.'

26"His master replied, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.

28" 'Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. 29For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 30And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

The one who did not use what God had given him was punished. It sounds harsh, but its the way it is.

Now, God is a loving and understanding God. If you are in extreme circumstances that cause your grades to drop, its not as though you're going to get hit by a bolt of lighting. If your mom dies, your grades are going to drop, thats pretty much a given, and you are not in any wrong if that happens. You are in the wrong when you decide not to do your best on something (ultimately it is a decision, its just an unconscious one most of the time).

So take the bull by the horns. Rather than pushing off that assignment to the last day, start working on it well in advance. Its not as though you have to devote all of your free time to working on school, hanging out with friends and doing enjoyable things is very important and not doing that is a problem in and of itself, but do give yourself the time you need to make something excellent out of each school project (or for you career folks, work project/job). This doesn't mean you work so hard that you run yourself into the ground (thats a problem in and of itself) but that you know your limit, and you work up to that.

I hope this has really challenged you guys, because I know that its challenging me even as I'm writing it, and I will probably have to go back and re-read what I've just written a couple times throughout this semester to remind myself of the importance of honoring God through my work.

Now, this message is not universal. I know there are some of you that do not suffer from this. In fact, I can think of one person right off the top of my head who I know does not suffer from lack of work ethic. She probably knows who she is. In many ways this devotional is not meant for you, but I'll leave you with one question so that you haven't read my rantings for no reason at all: rather than the narrow question of “how can I honor God with my work?” ask yourselves “what areas are there in which I could honor God more?” I know thats impossibly broad, but heres some you might not think of right off the bat: how can I honor God in my play? (by play I mean anything you do to relax. Rest and relaxation is very, very important. When you play, play hard! Enjoy yourself! Good clean fun in abundance is the way God meant for it to be!) How can I honor God with my time (I know this is one I've been working on and is connected with the whole schoolwork thing) How can I honor God by honoring those close to me? How can I honor God by honoring my family (this is a tough one for many, and it was a tough one for me until relatively recently, and I still have to be conscious of it)

Anyways, hopefully that gives you people with incredible work ethic and drive something to ponder :D.

Now, I always fear that I will swing to far to an extreme with these things, so I always try to balance what I'm saying. If you have bad work ethic, you don't need to fix yourself immediately and become a perfect worker or you will get hit by holy fire. Our God is an incredibly loving and patient God, and just as a good parent has patience with his/her child in teaching them and helping them grow, God is patient with helping us grow, more patient than I think I can even be with myself. So please, don't get worried, none of us are perfect, and God understands that fully, and hes so patient and gracious with us, you're not gonna get zapped because you aren't 100% in this area.

Anyways, I think I've ranted long enough, so I'll end it here and mail it off. I think the questions and homework section were kind of integrated, so I'll just leave it at that.

God bless

-Ricky AKA Yoda.

The Belt of Truth Part 2: Identifying and Dealing with Lies

The Belt of Truth Part Two:

Identifying and Dealing with Lies

The following is taken directly from my YWAM notes with the occasional rewording for clarity. The speaker who gave us this teaching was Mike Phillips. My heartfelt thanks go out to him for being so instrumental in helping me overcome a lot of this stuff.

To give some context, the stuff after each word is what lies in that sort of form would look like. I might also add an aside on my own, those will go in [square brackets like this]

4 Rulers in our Lives.

1) Heart lies:

A) Shame -> It's always my fault, I deserve to be punished. I'm an idiot, I should've known better.

B) fear -> you feel that certain thing swill happen or not happen to you no matter what.

C) abandonment -> I'm always going to be alone. I will always be rejected.

D) I will not be loved -> I must earn love, I cannot be loved, I must not hope for love.

E) I don't need anyone -> I can't trust anyone, I don't like asking anyone to help me.

F) powerless lie -> I cannot control anything, nothing will ever change in my life.

G) tainted lie -> I will never be clean

H) hopeless lie -> why bother? Nothing will ever work. Question: why are you so special that you'll be the only one the truth won't work for?

-> Destructive habits come from lies. Lies prevent us from closeness with God or others.

2) Vows (often based on lies)

-> a decision to go in a certain direction, ie. “no ones ever going to hurt me again”

-> scripture says “every vow will be fulfilled.”

-> more examples: “I will never trust anyone.” “I will never feel again.” “I won't trust myself again.” “I will always fail.”

-> these vows and lies we believe give satan power!

-> people will turn into what we fear. For example, women that were abused as children often end up being abused in their marrige relationship. [There is a spiritual power behind these vows that I don't fully understand. I trust that Mike Phillips knows what he was talking about though. I do know based on my limited experience that spiritual war is a reality and should not be ignored]

3) Judgements

-> there is a difference between evaluating if something is wrong and condemning people

because they do something

-> You will become what you judge!

4) Unforgiveness

-> bitterness is getting even with people that aren't there.

[I cannot emphasize this one point enough, Mike didn't talk about it as much as I thought he

should've (either that or I didn't take good notes). Unforgiveness gives satan tremendous power.

Unforgiveness plauges our society, and satan rejoices. Scripture speaks very strongly against

unforgiveness, in Matthew 18:21-35 contains the parable of the unforgiving servant. I will copy

it from biblegateway.com so you guys can read it:]

21Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"

22Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.^[f]

23"Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents^[g] was brought to him. 25Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

26"The servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' 27The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

28"But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii.^[h] He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded.

29"His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'

30"But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.

32"Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' 34In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

35"This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

[basically, if you do not forgive someone when they ask for your forgiveness you are placing

yourself under a curse. It is that simple. Unforgiveness will destroy you and those around you.

Learn to give up your pride, humble yourself, and CHOOSE to forgive people when they ask

for it. That doesn't mean you immediately stop being angry, but you CHOOSE to stop letting

that anger affect how you treat them. That does not mean you forget what they did to you.

Forgiving someone that abused you does not mean that you place yourself in a situation where

you could be abused again. Forgiving is... Okay, I know this seems instant to you guys, but

I've spent a good 20 minutes trying to figure out how to say what forgiveness is in a way that

makes sense and is applicable. I finally decided to go to an outside resource, and I think

bible.com has a pretty good way of putting it: “When God forgives us, He no longer holds our

sins against us. Therefore, we don't have the right to hold others' sins against them--not if we

belong to Jesus. If we belonged to the world, we could indulge in bitterness, but the blood-

bought child of a merciful King has no such right.” and then “The best way to be rid of bearing

a grudge against someone, is to confess it to the Lord and seek His help. Then, begin to pray for

that person as if you were praying for yourself.” Thats the best I can come up with. Hopefully

thats helpful to you guys.]

How To Deal with the Lies

A) Confession -> confess it as YOUR lie. Do not place blame on others. Believing in something untrue is a sin, so it needs to be confessed.

B) Renounce -> We have to CHOOSE to unbeileve the lie.

-> We do this by making a spiritual act of renouncing it. We have to want it to be gone.

-> When we renounce the lie, its broken.

C) Forgive -> Forgive those that did things to you that helped you buy into that lie. Do not hold it against them or you're back at the whole unforgiveness problem.

D) Hear God -> ask God how He sees you, and what He thinks. If there is a specific memory tied to a lie, think back to it and ask God what he thinks about that situation.

Thats all I have guys. Hopefully this is a help to you.

-Ricky Isaak AKA Yoda.

Armor of God Series: Part 1: The Belt of Truth

Hello everyone. I've been feeling an urge to do an e-mail devotional of some sort for quite some time. I have decided to start my own because I feel it's what God is calling me to do. I decided to include basically everyone I know on the list, this includes people from camp, YWAM, family, and friends. These won't have any kind of regular schedule to them, they'll come as they come (although I'm guessing it'll be something like two per month) Anyways, I hope these can be helpful and encouraging to you. So here goes:

Oh, one more thing, I tried for ages to try to think up a decent title for this Devotional, and I haven't come up with anything I like thus far, so the current name “Thoughts from a Jedi Master” is a placeholder. If you think up something better (preferably related to my camp name “Yoda”) let me know!

Armor of God Series:

Part 1: The Belt of Truth

I figured the Armor of God would be a decent place to start a devotional series, and this particular topic has been one that I've had on my mind recently. First, the classic passage for this topic, Ephesians 6:10-18:

“Finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the power of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore 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. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helment of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and request. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”

The Belt of Truth, the piece we'll be looking at, is possibly the most overlooked piece in the Armor of God. Belt of Truth? Pah, gimmie a shield of faith! Give me a sword of the spirit! Thats the kinda stuff I want! Why would we ever need a belt? Seriously, how many of you have read that passage and just breezed by the belt part? I know I have, but its importance has really come to my attention in the past years, so I want to look at it now.

Lets think about this for a moment. Lets say we're in Middle Earth, and we're about to fight some orcs. Obviously, some armor would be a good idea. So we put on our helmet, get our breastplate on. But wait? What do we attach our sword to? We hook the sheath onto the belt. Truth and the word of God (that being the sword of the spirit) are linked. Gods word provides us with truth, both about Himself and about how He sees us. Not only that, you'll likely want to wear something to protect your legs, so some sort of chain-mail leggings. These leggings would probably weigh, oh, about 20 pounds (I really have no idea, 20 is an arbritatry number I came up with. I think its safe to say they'd be heavy though seeing as they're made out of metal). If you disregard the belt, your pants fall down. Try fighting with your pants down. Try doing anything productive with your pants down. Now, I know the pants aren't part of “the armor of God” but I think the point still holds true. The belt is important, it holds everything together and in place.

As a bit of a side note, while the belt of truth is incredibly important, so are all the other parts of the armor. Each part is equally important and we will experience a lot of trouble if we are missing one. For example, the shield of faith. Faith is great, but lots of faith in something that is untrue (because we lack the belt of truth) doesn't work out too well. Every part is essential and needed for us to wage a successful battle in the spiritual war we're all in.

Truth is essential. Without a good, firm grasp on what is true and what isn't, everything else falls apart. Our pants fall down, and we are effectively neutralized in the spiritual battle.

So now you're thinking “okay, but shouldn't I be fine? I mean, I know Jesus is God, I know God loves me, shouldn't I be all good?” Well, the answer is no. See, satan is called the father of lies, you know why? Because he is very, very good at lying, and not the “my dog ate it” kind of lie, I'm talking about the kind of lies that we buy into. All of us believe lies about ourselves, lies about others, and lies about God. In general these lies are so ingrained into how we view ourselves and others that we don't even recognize them. satan knows how to lie well, not in a chronic way thats recognizable, but in a way that mixes actual truth with a bit of untruth, and thats what really messes us up. The best lies are the ones that have the most truth in them.

So, if these lies are ingrained and we don't even recognize them (or rather, we believe and buy into them) how do we deal with them?

One – read Gods word. It's the truth, it tells us the truth about Him, and the truth about how He sees us. How we think God views us and how we view God is very, very important and affects how we live and how we serve Him.

Two – spend time in thought and prayer, examine yourself. If you ever find yourself overly pessimistic about certain things and you're not entirely sure why, theres probably a lie you believe about yourself that is influencing your thinking and, by extension, your attitude and actions.

Three – identify, renounce, and resist lies. Lets break that three part thing down a bit so it makes more sense.

A) Identify is part of number two, you find a lie you believe about yourself (ie. Nobody will ever want to hang out with me, I will always be overlooked). Sometimes its a good idea to identify ways in which you behave that are caused by this lie (ie. If you believe nobody will ever want to hang out with you and that you will always be overlooked, you might have low self-esteem, you'll usually be really surprised when anyone shows interest in you (I know this was the case in the past and a very good friend was instrumental in helping me get past that), and sometimes you'll even try to deflect that interest because you feel you aren't worth their time)

B) Renounce means taking that lie to God in prayer, asking Him to forgive you for it (believing a lie IS wrong, but its certainly not a sin He can't handle), and asking Him to help you not to believe it anymore.

C) Resist refers to not falling back into that lie. Renouncing a lie isn't a one time thing, satan will try to get you believing it again. When I dealt with a lot of my insecurity at YWAM that wasn't a one time thing, I still have to pray against it and be watchful for signs that I'm falling back into it. It happens more often then you might think, I had a number of serious insecurity attacks while at camp this summer that I really had to pray like crazy to get through.

Heres an example of a lie I thought of. One of the best ways to deal with these lies and get our “belt” back on properly is to counter the lie with the best source of truth: the Bible.

“God can't possibly love me anymore, I've sinned far too much.”

Romans 8:38-39

“38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[m] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Keep in mind that this is Paul writing this, who participated in murdering Christians before his dramatic conversion. God loves you, period. Doesn't matter what you've done. Jesus blood is the atonement for all your sins, period. satan wants you to believe that Jesus' sacrifice was not sufficient to cover your sins, but it is, doesn't matter how huge you think your sin is or how many times you've sinned, Jesus blood is more than enough.

I have a whole list of possible lies in my YWAM notebook. I will put them in a second e-mail I will send out a day or two after this one.

Now, I don't want this just to be a me talking and you reading kind of thing. I want to challenge you and give you material which you can take with you to your personal devotions. I also want to have a totally open door to questions, thoughts, and anything else (including criticism if you think anything I say is off base). So, with each of these devotionals I will include a “homework” section and a “questions” section. The “homework” section will involve stuff for you to do in your personal devotions and the “questions” section will involve stuff I'd like to hear back from you on!

Homework: spend some time in thought and see if you can identify some lies in your life that you have chosen to believe. Also spend some time in prayer asking God to show you some lies specifically, Hes more than happy to help with that. He will not show you every lie you believe all at once because that would be too much for us to handle, He will show lies to you in a paced manner that you can handle. Once you have identified a specific lie, renounce it (meaning you choose to not believe it anymore, or, you choose to UNbelieve it) and give it over to God (meaning you ask Him to help you not believe it anymore and change you so that you aren't living as if that lie were true)

Questions: If you think up a specific lie that you think you might be buying into, e-mail me! I'd be more than happy to pray with you on that and try to find scriptures that address or rebuke that lie specifically.

Remember guys, God loves you like crazy, no matter what. Finding lies we believe with His help and removing them (again, with His help) are a big part of His plan to make our lives an incredible adventure in Jesus.

Also, if you want to forward this to any friends or family, please feel free to do so.

God bless!

-Ricky Isaak AKA Yoda