TUESDAY, July 1st, 2008

Happy July 1st!! I LOVE THE MONTH OF JULY! It is by far the greatest month for several reasons: summer, fireworks, my birthday... I could go on, but you get the picture! :) Lets have a GREAT month of devotions! Stay faithful and hold each other accountable!

Call up a few of your friends and tell them: "DO YOUR DEVOTIONS... DOT COM"

Ok, so a few thoughts from yesterday:
Jessica B: I am so glad that you are home! We missed you on the rewards trip!
Gaby: Did you have efun at the movies last night? You need to try to get Jessica Staley on here with us!
Kacey: Good to see you girl! We missed you and Jill Sunday night! It was an awesome Barbecue!!
Josh L: Good job on the devotion: I especially like the part where you said: "Jesus died doe the people with low I.Q.'s and high I.Q.'s..." so anyway... I dont need a truck and trailer for that jetski! It is so fast, I will just rdrive it everywhere I go, I just have to figure out how to strap Will in it somehow! (by the way, that Jet ski is faster that a Ferrari!! Go watch the video... they race!!)
Kervin: WOW!!! GREAT JOB MAN! I like it! I think they are not to wise to take such a bold staement so lightly either! And good job saying: "none of Christs miracles were evil, How could he be posessed bya demon!" Smart Thinkin'!!
Jessica Massey: We have missed you on here! It is about time that you join us again! Did you have fun last night? Thanks for doing your devotions!

John 10:

22 Now it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter.
23 And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon’s porch.
24 Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, “How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me.
26 But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you.
27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.
29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.
30 I and My Father are one.”

I dont know about you, but I am really getting a different understanding of the earthly ministry of Christ. I use to think that He spent the first few years of His ministry being worshipped every where He went... Having people love on Him and welcome Him to their towns. But it was not nearly that exciting, Jesus was constantly trying to teach the pharasaical hypocrites that He really was the son of God.

Christ went through all of this annoying debate with his CREATION about whether or not he was truely their creator! Think about that! I always like to put it into application with playdough.

Imagine with me if I were to create little tiny humans out of playdough, and then AFTER I GAVE THEM LIFE, I went down to talk to them, and they would not believe that I was their creator... I tell you what I would do, I would go out and by one of those spaghetti playdough makers and I would put each one of them into it, and make a delicious plate of playdough spaghetti. BUT JESUS DOES NOT DO THAT! HE DIES FOR US! In the words of Jeff LaPerriere Yesterday: WOW!!

Verses 24 and 25 are almost unbelievable! Think about this! the pharisees tell Jesus: "ok, we are serious now, tell us if you really are the son of God". Jesus tells them, I HAVE ALREADY TOLD YOU OVER AND OVER BUT YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE!!!!!!!

We are the exact same way: Christ tells us to avoid sin in His word, but we don't... Christ tells us to love others without judging, but we don't... Christ tells us to be Holy as He is Holy, but we disobey... It is easy to judge these pharisees, but we need to make sure that we are not doing exactly what they were doing: Being Hypocrites!

Stay faithful this week! Dont forget to type out a personal application and not just the plot of the story that we read! Keep up the good work!