Do Your Devotions with Suncoast Youth Group: MONDAY, May 12th, 2008

MONDAY, May 12th, 2008

Well, hello on this fledgling Monday. It is good to see that you are on your devotions again this week. Keep up the GREAT work! If you are on today and you did not check yesterdays Devotional blog, let me encourage you to go back and do yesterday's devotions after your finish todays. Normally I would not ask that, but yesterday we did something a little different that has been a lot of fun to read about the 7 people that already did it! Go check it out.

A Few thoughts from Yesterday And the Day Before:
Ryan W: Hey Man! It is Awesome To see you on here!! Great Job!
Rachel: I can't wait to see Erica on here! That will be so cool! Great Job at witnessing to your friends!
Jon: You need to call me man, we have to talk about your "devos" you need convince me to accept your "one line devotions" :)
Jeff: You didn't "get saved" more than five times... YOU CAN ONLY GET SAVED ONCE!
Josh: I must agree with you: writing an article on Baby Ruth Candybars cannot qualify you for the longest devotions of the year. Sorry Alex.
Gaby and Jackieee: HEY GIRLS! GLAD YOU JOINED US!! That was awesome! Keep it Up!
Jill: That is so cool about talking with Amanda! I am looking forward to Wednesday. Hey, Aslo: Call up Sarah W. and Encourage her to stay on the Devo Blog! Thanks!

...Wow... that was not a few thoughts that was Quite a few :)

To the devos:

Philippians 3:17-21
17 Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern.
18 For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things.
20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.

This is such a simple passage, so I dont want to hear (read) any short answers today. Paul starts out by telling us to FOLLOW HIS EXAMPLE, but not only His. We should also mark other people who are following Pauls example and hang out with those people. We need to let Gods people be the ones that influence us. I dont think it is just a coincidence that this topic of friends keeps coming up over and over. YOUR FRIENDS INFLUENCE YOU EVERY DAY. You will be just like your friends Guaranteed!
Paul tells us that we must be careful because there are many people that are "enemies of the cross of Christ" Is that your friend? James tells us that anyone who is a friend of the world is the ENEMY of God. Those are strong words, BUT SO TRUE! Be so careful who your influencers are. The Enemies of God will be destroyed. In verse 19 Paul explains who those people are: The people who only focus on Earthly things. Do you only focus on earthly things? Think about it like this: when you were getting ready for School this morning were you only worried about what you were going to wear and who you were going to see? Or did you pray for Gods will today, or did you pray for that lost friend. We should be thinking about heavenly things because THAT IS WHERE OUR CITIZENSHIP IS! We are Heaven Citizens!! Lets Live Like IT!

Application:
I want to make sure that I have Godly friends: Friends that also follow Pauls example striving to be like Christ. I believe that I do only have those kinds of friends.I think of Eric Cheske, He is a great guy that I have been able to hang out with a lot lately. It is nice to have friends that seek the truth. It helps me do the same. If I have any worldy friends, then I must explain to them that I am a Christian, I am different, and I can share Jesus with them , but I cannot hang out with them, because they will pull me down.

What did you get out of this passage?

20 comments:

Aznricerunr[PN] said...: Pastor Lee and I are cleaning the teen room so it can look nice when you guys come back wednesday for youth group.

Having good friends is very important because they influence your every move. Having bad friends equal bad descisions. Its simple having good people around wil influence you to be good. Im glad that there is a youth group to go to and hangout at or I would probaly be some where I shouldn't be. We need to filter our friends from the good and the bad. We need to look at the people around us and ask ourselfs if Jesus would have these peole as friends. Just like those bracelets WWJD What Would Jesus Do. What happened to those things anyway. If you filter out your friends you will be much happier because you won't feel bad when you do something bad.; May 12, 2008 at 9:42 AM
CCM said...: I just wanted to say what a blessing it was to read your testimonies on yesterday's blog. If anyone missed Sunday's devo, they should definitly click on it, read it and write thiers.
Also, I had a great time with "10 car pile-up" on Sat. (great name for a band isn't it?) You guys are cool!
Keep it real! Carl; May 12, 2008 at 11:05 AM
Rachel☺; said...: UGHH,,
i hate my computer.
i just typed out all of my devotions for today and was about to type in the captcha(funny letters) to post it and the computer restarts all by itself
,,
this is the third time its happened and it only does it on my devotion time.
:/
ill try to remember what i had before.
Well, i started off with thinking about how different the world is from how we should be, and how it talks about it in this passage; "those who are friends of the world are enemies of God" and "those whose glory is in their shame" We live in the world and are surrounded by its influences wherever we go.
When we find people/things that are Godly influences, we should keep them closer than the bad. Of course, we have to interact with the world in everyday life and also when we are witnessing (you dont try to save a saved person, you go for the unsaved) but we are told to have a lot of positive influences so we arent pulled down by the bad.
okay, application.
since i have been focusing more on the Lord, ive noticed that some of the bad influences and friends i had have naturally just drifted, because i know thats not what i really want anymore, but other things i need to let go of so they arent obstructive to my Christian lifestyle.; May 12, 2008 at 3:56 PM
Rachel☺; said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; May 12, 2008 at 3:58 PM
Tylermon33 said...: well Paul was saying that we should live by his influence and God's influence because the people who influence us the most we will most likely act like them, good or bad. also he was saying we should have Godly influences in our life so we can act like them and so we can learn from them the Word of God (also by reading you Bible) and Godly things. also we should have Godly friends because we hang around our friens the most so we get the most influence from them, and if we hang out with bad friends then we are going to have a bad influence, but if we hang around Godly friends then we are going to have a Godly influence (hopefully). so hopefull everyone is hanging out with Godly influences.; May 12, 2008 at 5:46 PM
Anonymous said...: I think this message is something i need to work on. it is really hard to find good godly friends these days i feel that the godly ones hung out with the bad ones and it changed them to do bad things. i think we all need to be godly people so then other people like us can actually find good godly people to hang out with so we can guide them down the right path. i also feel i need to pray more about people at school and try to get them saved.; May 12, 2008 at 5:50 PM
Gaby said...: wow this passage is deff. for me. I think about how many people god has removed from my life and how much better off i am without them. I think about sonya and how she really changed me and affected the way i treated people and acted. You don't really realize at the time your being changed but you are. I guess what im trying to say is that paul is telling us christians to follow his example. PICK YOUR FRIENDS WISELY!! It's alot easier for them to bring you down then for you to lift them up. I'm learning that it is important to surround myself with people who arent worldly and are more christ-like...it's really making my life alot happier =]; May 12, 2008 at 8:16 PM
McCue said...: So so so so true. Friends will influence us whether we realize it or not. I see it in myself at times and I see it in some of my good friends. This can be a good thing and a bad thing. On the good side we can influence the people around us to be more righteous, but we have to set our own standards. On the downside we can easily be influenced by friend not even close to the will of god. One thing I need to do more often is pray for guidance every day before school. That I might make christ-like choices and be an example.; May 12, 2008 at 8:21 PM
Anonymous said...: This passage really emphasizes the importance of having good friends. It shows the importance of finding a godly example and making yourself accountable to them.

A lot of times we think we can hang out with whoever we want, and we can watch and listen to what we want and it won't affect us. This verse shows us so clearly that if we follow after ungodly things we will end in destruction. That seems like such a harsh way to put it, but I think it is because they want us to see how serious it is that we follow the Lord.

Hey Jill, I really liked doing discipleship too. Let's set up one day a week where you can come over and we can finish it. That would be great!!!!; May 12, 2008 at 8:53 PM
Anonymous said...: Pastor Lee my mom says the same thing that you said "friends of the world are enemies of God"but she's says "if you love this world we are not follower's of god" or something like that!!!=]
by the way Jon if your birthday is May 24 then WE HAVE THE SAME BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
that's cool I've never met someone with the same birthday as me=p
okay devo time...
what I got out of this passage is that it is important to have Christian friends because like most people said they influence you.They take you down with them instead of you taking them up.You should always be a leader with your unchristian friends (or be a follower with a very much lover of God)anyway I'm like super tired so i think i'm gonna go to bed!!!goodnight
(P.S)Jon my birthday is better cause I'm a girl!!!!!!; May 12, 2008 at 9:15 PM
Amy said...: The people of Christ need to be a good example of baby Christians and struggleing Christians. Your friends have a great example on your life and if they are a good example to you, you will have a good attitude in your life. We need to focus on God- centered things and ideas in our lifestyle not world- centered things and ideas in our lifestyle. I have some friends who are like Christian things are kinda weird and to extreme for me and some of my other friends are God- centered all the time and have a great relationship with Him. Setting a good example for an unsaved person can drastically change their lifestyle in many ways. God has set His wonderful example for us by dieing on cross for us and if I would die for someone it would definetly be Jesus. Because He died for me. This passage is a great passage to give to a friend or family member that you think has given someone you know a bad example. We just need to pray for them in wisdom and in strength through Jesus Christ.; May 12, 2008 at 9:42 PM
Jillian said...: wow this is awesome
"our citizenship is in heaven" how exciting =]
that reminds me of a song but i forget the name of it lol
its says somethin about this isnt my home im just passin threw =]
so what ever we do here on earth we should be ready at every second for Jesus to come back because hes coming back at the least expected time
and i thought it was also cool how when we get to heaven were gonna have a while new body
so if your one of thoes people who isnt happy with there body just think well when i die and go to Heaven im gonna have a perfect body maybe thatll help life your spirits lol
and also we should all take good care of our earthly bodys because theyer Gods not ours

haha i was just about to ask jeff if he went to school today but then i remembered lol; May 12, 2008 at 9:43 PM
Jillian said...: ok well now im reading everyone elses and im realizing that mine is talking about something totaly diffrent well maybe thats because i didnt read p.lees thingie haha but thats what i got out of it =]
and yes katie i would love to start that up again it would really help me alot

ILY all; May 12, 2008 at 9:45 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; May 12, 2008 at 10:00 PM
Anonymous said...: This passage talks about how were supposed to follow pauls example.
Even though a person might seem like a good friend but that doesnt mean there a godly person. If u have a friend like that i would try to help them on that but i could never really be good friends with them because the more im with them the more they influence me to be just like them but God would still want me to try and help them with there toubles and i LOVED what Jeff said about WWJD i thought that was a perfect example of something we should think of whenever we are in a situation like that. so to sum up make godly friends so u wont be influenced badly by them and thats why we should trust Jesus Christ because hes the one that will never let us down.
Amen. lol
Jonathan Massey
Hows that for no more short devos Pastor Lee ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.; May 12, 2008 at 10:19 PM
Jessica M said...: Follow His example... it sounds so simple when everything around you in life is going well. But what about those times when the wrong group of friends tempts you or you want to engage in something wrong yet fun but you know that it is not the right thing to do. Is it still "simple" to follow the example of Christ?
The words from Pastor Lee on his devos YOUR FREINDS INFLUENCE YOU EVERYDAY!!! Meaning that the type of people we surround ourselves with WILL effect us whether we think we know it or not. Even though people may appear on the outside that they are walking in truth I guess you could say, they may not be.

I know I have talked about my bff Darcy before but she really is the only friend that I have that I can tell my true feelings to because her morals, her beliefs, and her spiritual walk with Christ is very similar to mine. It is GREAT to have a friend like that. She is the only true one I can relate with the most because she is true with her identify, not two faced or a crowd follower but a leader at heart.

By doing my devotions everyday I have truly seen my walk with Christ become stronger day by day. I have been bolder with my faith and my will to be more of a leader than a follower.

This passage also talks about fixing our eyes on heaven and not on earthy things. It will get you nowhere. But of course if you are human you are a victim of this. God has a word for us though. Saying that HIS will is the only way and the ways of the world will always affect us as Christians in ways that the enemy can easily destroy us.

My challenge?…. Pray more because the power of prayer can withstand all…and pray also that God will surround me with more Christ like people so that my growth in HIM will only become stronger.; May 12, 2008 at 10:37 PM
jackieee said...: Is it sad that it took me an hour to find the comments and an additional thirty minutes to remember my password? Oh yes, and Pastor Lee, my name is'nt acctualy spelled with three e's at the end incase you were wondering. :)

Anyway. I think this passage is saying you shouldn't choose just anyone to be your friend. Up until this October, I had been best friends with this girl for like ten years. A new girl I didn't particulrly get allong with came to our school and started rumors and all this other junk that made the whole class angry and the way it ended up, two of us were singled out from the rest of the class from the lies that she spread. Molly and I are now best friends and we get along verry well. I realize how miserable I was before we all stopped talking, and though only one person signed my year book, she filled up all four pages with a smile on her face. She is a much better influence on me. Now instead of slacking off all weekend and doing my homework at four in the morning, I'm acctualy getting it done in class. I'm not saying that I don't miss hanging out the other ten kids in our class, but if the way they act around me can be changed by somone as deciteful as she is, I guess they aren't really true friends.; May 12, 2008 at 10:53 PM
HADOKEN!!! said...: In this passage paul is telling us to live our lives with him as an example. But its not just him, he says to follow the example of people like him such as followers of Christ. People like pastor Lee and Pastor Chip and their wives. It also tells us to avoid enemies of the cross. They are not talking about villians like Dr. Doom, just people who dont follow Christ. Beware of who you hang out with and how they are influensing you. It tells us that we are citizens of Heaven and mabye we should all act a little more like it.; May 13, 2008 at 7:08 AM
weird high school kid said...: paul is saying to use him as an example as how we are to live. Also in verse 18 paul says how many have walked in his path but since they are idiots have turned from christ and are enemies of the cross. anyways since we're citizens of heaven paul wants us to act like it instead of fooling around and being stupid. I can't wait to go to heaven especially because of verse 21 and god's promise of transforming our lowly bodies to be more like his.; May 13, 2008 at 7:37 AM
Anonymous said...: lets see if my comp will b a lil less retarded!sayin my password is wrong & stuff...idk

anyways!!!

As ive said b4 in a previous post ive done a MUCH better job at choosing friends & who i let influence me=]
ive "cut the fat" so 2 speak & am cleaning up my act.

itz right,
ahhhh gotta go!!!; May 13, 2008 at 10:49 AM

MONDAY, May 12th, 2008

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