THURSDAY, January 15th, 2009

Hey Guys! It is Thursday! What are your plans for the week? Are any of us getting together tomorrow since there is no school? Let me know!!

Thanks for coming last night! There were over 30 of you there! I am looking forward to seeing the fruit from this "new face for a new year"

Alright... on to the devotionss!

Psalm 12

1 Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.
2 They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.
3 The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things:
4 Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us?
5 For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.
6 The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
7 Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.
8 The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.

This passage really applies to some of you... many of you have talked to me about how hard it is to do right at school when everyone else seems to be doing wrong! That is exactly how David felt here... He starts out by calling out to God for help!!! Why? Because there are no Godly men anywhere!!! David simply wants to have some Godly friendship, a Godly companion, someone who is willing to stand beside Him when he stands for what is right!!

The rest of the chapter goes on talking about the wickedness of those people and Godspunishment on their life...

I think the most applicable part of this chapter is WHAT DAVID DID in this situation... we all face this at some point, whether it is in our home, or at our school, or at a job... many of us will be in a position where we are the only one that wants to do what is right... wo what do we do when we get there????

We do what David Did, we turn to God!!! We beg God to bring us a friend, we ask Him to providethat person who will stand up for the truth by our side... Have you prayed for that friend? Not only that, but David put his focus on God, not on Himself... That is tough. It is easy to focus on ourselves in a time like this, but David focused on God.

When we think about how alone Christ must have felt when he was on the cross it makes our loniless much less... There are some great verses that talk about how much we become like Christ when we go through trials and tribulation like He did.

Be strong in the midst of tribulation... Be strong even when NO ONE ELSE IS!!!