SATURDAY, March 7th, 2009

Hey Guys! I had fun last night! Hope you made it!

Hebrews 7

1 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,
2 to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated “king of righteousness,” and then also king of Salem, meaning “king of peace,”
3 without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually.
4 Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils.
5 And indeed those who are of the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brethren, though they have come from the loins of Abraham;
6 but he whose genealogy is not derived from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises.
7 Now beyond all contradiction the lesser is blessed by the better.
8 Here mortal men receive tithes, but there he receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives.
9 Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak,
10 for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.

FRIDAY, March 6th, 2009

Hey Everyone, I'm not really Pastor Lee today, I'm Michael Stratton, and doing the devos on his name. Yes he already knows and yes I hope you have a good day and come to the church at 6:30 which is like right now. Come. Now.

Hebrews 6

13 For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,
14 Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.
15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
16 For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
17 Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;
20 Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.



This passage has a promise that is a promise we must always remember: GOD DOESN'T LIE!! Most of us know that already, but need to keep this in mind. God's advasary, Satan, tries to pose as God, and tell you to do something and won't get caught, you do it and get caught. Then Satan lies to you again saying that God has done this to you. You get mad at God for "lying to you" and never speak to Him again; and Satan is happy. I just said something you should have seen, "you won't get caught" God doesn't say this things because He is holy and that is how you can tell if this voice in your head is God or not, by the most minute things he, Satan, says.

There are other promises God says, but if you can't find them, then you can just use the same one I did.

I am glad you are on the devos, and remember, GOD DOESN'T LIE!!!

THURSDAY, March 5th, 2009

Well hello everyone! I hope you were in church last night! Because those of you that were there, made it LOTS OF FUN!!!!!!! I really enjoyed last nights service! Thanks for making it exciting!

Hebrews 6

1 So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God.
2 You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
3 And so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding.
4 For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit,
5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come
6 and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.
7 When the ground soaks up the falling rain and bears a good crop for the farmer, it has God’s blessing.
8 But if a field bears thorns and thistles, it is useless. The farmer will soon condemn that field and burn it.
9 Dear friends, even though we are talking this way, we really don’t believe it applies to you. We are confident that you are meant for better things, things that come with salvation.
10 For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers, as you still do.
11 Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true.
12 Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God’s promises because of their faith and endurance.

This is a pretty hard passage to understand, and although I never use any other translations of the Bible, because I believe that the KJV is the most accurate translation, today I chose to share a different translation with you... Did you notice? This is only a one time thing, so do not fear!!

But let's look at this passage together: Baiscally the message that is clear in this passage is this: We need to GROW UP!!!!!! Why are we still struggling with sin so much, and why are we only talking about the basic truths of the Bible... God has so much for us but we have to grow strong in the basic truth and then we can move on to the deaper truths that God has for us!! There is a lot of powerful stuff in the word, but because we are so consumed by our flesh and the wiles of the devil,,, we are growing VERY SLOWLY!!!!

Think about this... we are kind of like Dwarf Christians. (have you ever seen that show on TLC about the Dwarf family, "the Rollofs", well because they are smaller the show proves how many normal daily tasks that we find easy, become very difficult for them because they have not grown to a normal size.

We as Christians do the same thing every day! We do not grow up like we should and then we wonder why it is so hard to walk with Christ, and to avoid sin, and to fight temptation!!

Stuff that we should be doing easily is very hard, because we HAVE NOT GROWN IN THE LORD LIKE WE SHOULD!!!!!!!!!


LETS GROW UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (spiritually)

WEDNESDAY, March 4th, 2009

Hey guys! Great thoughts yesterday! I wish more of us were on here! But I am thankful for the faithful!!

A Few Thoughts From Yesterday:
Michael: I love that question: Is it possible to live without sinning? Here is how I answer it: Is it possible to go one second without sinning? Yes? What about 2 second? Yes? What about 10 seconds? 30 Seconds? 1 minute? 10 minutes? 1 hour? 24 hours? I believe the answer is yes to all of them, God would not call us to do something that is not possible! God has called us to live holy (seperate from sin) and that is what we should strive for every day!
Victoria: Glad you are on here! Are you coming to church tonight? (you better if you know what is good for you :)

Hebrews 5

1 For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins:
2 Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.
3 And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins.
4 And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.
5 So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee.
6 As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
7 Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
9 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;
10 Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec.
11 Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.
12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

This is deep! If you are like me, you probably read quite a bit of this and did not understand it... I can explain part of it, but I want us to place our main focus on the last 3 verses... At the beginnind of this chapter it is explaining the position of the High Priest, the High Priest is the man in the old testament who went to God on behald of the people... The high priest went in to make the sacrifices for everyone elses sins, but the ironic part of that (what is also mentioned in verse 2) is that it says: "he himself also is compassed with infirmity". In other words, HOW CAN HE PAY FOR OUR SINS, IF HE IS COVERED IN SIN HIMSELF!!!!!

That is an absolute logical question, how can someone pay to get me out of debt, if they are in just as much debt as I am?? THEY CANNOT!!! In the same way, A Priest is a sinner just like me! Therefore He cannot pay for my sin! No, only a perfect high priest can pay for our sins, only a sinless sacrifice can cover our sins... Aren't you so thankful for Jesus!! He is the perfect High Priest! He could/ and did pay for our sins, when no one else could!!

That is cool, but lets jump to the end of this chapter! Look at verses 12 - 14
It makes it clear that there ar etwo kinds of truth, truth that is easy to digest (like milk) and truth that is much deeper (like meat)... The idea here is an illustration: You do not give a newborn baby a new york strip steak!! That would be crazy, and irresponsible! He might choke on it! His body cannot handle it! In the same way, you must start out as a young believer, or a new believer on the milk of the word...

It can be tempting to run straight to revelation, or some other prophetic book whenever you first get saved, but this passage makes it clear that we need to take our learning process in order! I was just talking with someone last night about the rapture and I thought to myself, if someone was not a believer, they would think that I am a nut for telling them that one day All Christians are going to vanish into thin air... We must take Gods truth in time, and in a process!

What stage in the process are you at? Time to start growing?

TUESDAY, March 3rd, 2009

Great Job Yesterday! We had four teenagers do their devotions!
I think we can do better!

A Few Thoughts From Yesterday:
Michael: We are praying for your family!
David: I don't know what happened to Josh S. You should invite him to come back sometime!
Lucy: You are quite an interesting girl! I guess you can use yesterdays passage to explain to your mom that you need more sleep :)

Hebrews 4:

9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

These are some incredible verses: first, look at verse 12... It explains the purpose of Gods word on our life! It is quick, powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword!!!! And it helps us descern what kind of thoughts are good and what thoughts are bad...

The world can be so confusing these days: One days they say something is ok, then the next day they tell you that it is bad for you... well, that is why we should not live by what the world says; but instead we must live by what God says!

I LOVE VERSE 15!!! It tells us that we do not have a high priest who does not understand us! We cannot say: Jesus does not know what it is like to live in this world, and to suffer!! He knows better than all of us. If we are ever tempted to think that maybe God does not undersand what we are facing, we need to remember this verse! It reminds us that He was tempted or TESTED in ALL POINTS THAT WE COULD BE TEMPTED IN!!!!!

He knows what it is like to live a sinless life, and He knows that it is possible for us to do so!!!

MONDAY, March 2nd, 2009

Hey guys! I hope you had a great monday! Well, let's continue our study through the book of Hebrews!

Hebrews 4:1-8

1 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.
2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.
3 For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: “ So I swore in My wrath, ‘ They shall not enter My rest, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
4 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”;
5 and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.”
6 Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience,
7 again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said: “ Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.”
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day.

this is a little tricky, but there is definitely a great illustration in the midst... the focus here is clearly on rest. Something we all enjoy, some a little more than others...

Have you ever been tired? Last night, I was so tired! I do not remember being as tired as I was last night, I just wanted to go home and go straight to bed!I was craving rest! I did not want to stay up and watch tv, I did not want to go play a game, I did not even want to go on facebook and check my mobwars! I just wanted to go get some rest!

Well, the fact is there are times in life where we just need that rest, we need to catch up on rest... God himself gave us an example by resting (even when he did not need to) on the seventh day of creation! We need rest. I am getting tired just thinking about all of this rest...

I think one other point that could be added in here is this: Have you ever had trouble sleeping? Maybe you were stressed about something? Maybe you were gguilty about something, whatever the case is, many times, when we do not trust God or Obey God like we should, our sleep (or rest) life shows it.

Maybe you are not getting sleep like you need these days, well it is probably one of three things: 1. You are not disciplined enough to turn off the tv (or video game) and go to bed.
2. You are stressed about something that you should just trust God with.
3. You are guilty about something that you should ask forgiveness for.

Now, I know that there are possible other reasons, like health issues and stuff, but these are the main ones that I wanted to address today!

GO TO SLEEP!!

Buffalo Wild Wings Reward Activity!! Thanks for being faithful!

Stay Faithful and Join us Next Time!