Where to Find Great Devotions

We are making a little change (change is good) to our devotions.  We are going to provide some outside links to devotions we use and love.  Please take advantage of this list from this point on!

Be Blessed!  We Love You!

http://thebasicswithbeth.com/blog/

http://www.kcm.org/read/faith-to-faith

http://christinecaine.com/content/first-things-first/gjtto8

Where’s Waldo?

As a child, have you ever played the game Where’s Waldo?  Maybe you played it as a child or maybe you have a grandchild that you have played it with.  Either way, most of us have found ourselves playing this game on more than one occasion in our lives.

The purpose of the game is to look throughout a massive group of people and find the guy we all call Waldo.  He is usually dressed up in some form of clothing that sets Him apart in the crowd.  We find ourselves looking at page after page for Waldo amidst large numbers of people doing random things in life.  Whether its on the busy beach, the packed mall, the crazy carnival, or the intense movie theater, Waldo is there and its our job to find Him.

This paints the perfect picture of our day to day with the Lord.  Did you know that the Lord is constantly looking all over the world for someone who has a heart that is strong towards Him?  Check out 2nd Chronicles 16:9 in the NLT.  It says “ The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.”

God is looking for you.  He has always been looking for you and will always be looking for you!  He wants to show Himself strong on your behalf today!  Essentially, God is playing an eternal game of Where’s Waldo.  All day, everyday.  Accept for Him, it doesn’t just stop at Waldo.  He is playing where’s Brenda?  Where’s Jonathon?  Where’s Michael?  Where’s Justina?  Where’s Sarah?….Well you get the picture. He knows the name of every human on this planet and is inserting it behind where’s.  

Truth be told, He is looking for you in the busyness of the crowds. He wants to use you to demonstrate His strength to the lost. Whether it’s a beach, mall, carnival, car dealership, gas station, or razorbacks game, He is looking for you. You stand out in the crowd and you have caught His eye.

Today, know this.  He is looking for you.  You have caught His eye and He is pleased with what He sees.  Make the decision to follow Him.  He will use you to reach the world.  

Consistency Beats Loftiness

A lot of times, as Christians we might feel like we always need to be enthusiastic or extravagant in order to be authentic as a Christian. We should always be giving more, worshiping more, praying more, reading the bible more. I think that the problem is that we feel the need to spend more time, but in reality, God just wants more of our hearts. Sometimes this does require more time or more effort, but more than any of that it requires consistency. Setting lofty, ‘out of reach’ goals just doesn’t work. It is causes us to be discouraged and inconsistent. If we set goals that are attainable, we will be able to hold a consistent prayer and word life and will be able to further our relationship with The Lord. So instead of trying to spend more time or do more, put your focus on being consistent with something you can attain.

Here is a practical step to developing your relationship with God. Start where you are at. Instead of trying to spend hours, take 10-20 minutes in the morning to read a chapter and pray, and then take 10-20 minutes to read and pray before you go to bed. I believe as you do this consistently day by day you will begin to grow in desire and relationship with God. As time goes on you may find yourself wanting to read or pray over your time limit. It’s ok to do that by the way!:-) If this suggestion doesn’t work for you, set something up that does, something that you can be consistent with. God wants us to be a daily consistent follower, not a roller coaster ride.

Joshua 1:8-Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.


Luke 9:23-Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me.“

Grow Rich by Pastor Evan

I have three boys with varying personalities.  I have found something though, that they all have in common…I haven’t figured out whether it’s an age thing or a boy/man thing, although I’m beginning to see that it’s leaning toward the latter. ;)  They all have selective hearing.  Meaning, when it’s something they want to hear they tend to be all ears.  When momma says that dreaded sentence of “please go pick up your rooms” or “I need you to pick up your toys” they sometimes pretend they didn’t hear me.  When in reality they are choosing to ignore me and the instruction that I am giving them.

Proverbs 13:13 MSG “Ignore the Word and suffer; honor God’s commands and grow rich.”
As Pastor Nate was ministering a while ago he was referencing Proverbs 13 and the fear of the Lord.  During this, the Lord brought me up a few verses to verse 13.

Just like my boys ignore my voice or the words I am saying we often times do that with the Word of God.  This does nothing but hurt us.  But when we HONOR His Word we grow rich.  I believe this means more than financial.  This means we flourish into the very person that He has called us to be!
To honor something means that we put it first in our lives.  Ultimately, to put something first, we have to have a fear for it.  Not fear as in afraid, but fear as in such awe, respect, and value for it.

The Word of God is always speaking.  The question is always are we listening or ignoring?  I want to be someone who is quick to obey Him and His Word, knowing that it is always going to cause me to grow and flourish in what He’s called me to be.

Today, make a decision to put the Word of God first.  Don’t ignore those things that He shows you.  Don’t be a selective hearer, only listening for the so called “good things”.  Also be a listener of those words of correction, adjustment, and change.  We can receive them because we know He brings them to us for our good.  Give the Word of God that place of honor today and grow rich!

Take courage

Recently, I was given the privilege of ministering a message to our youth at Beyond Church.  This particular message had a title that was keep your eyes on Jesus.  I don’t know about you, but, I tend to have a very hard time keeping my eyes on Jesus sometimes.  It is second nature at church but when I am out and about, being faced with things everyday, sometimes its just flat out difficult.

I began meditating this story in the bible this past Monday and let me just say, by Wednesday night service, I was ready to rock because the Lord really brought some things out.  Its found in Mathew 14:22-34 in the NLT.  The story starts out with Jesus insistently telling the disciples to get in the boat and cross the waters.  Jesus himself stayed behind to send the people home that just filled up their tummies.  All 5,000 of them!!  Can you imagine what it would be like to communicate to that many people without a sound system?

I know that Nike coined this phrase but Jesus was the original Beast Mode.  Upon completing that daunting task seemingly effortlessly, Jesus heads to the hills to spend some time communing with God.  It says that night fell while He was up there…  Lets just say that it got dark at 10 o'clock at night where He was…Well, it wasn’t until 3 o'clock in the morning that the disciples saw him walking on the water.  That is 5 hours!  My guess is that after a full day of healing, delivering, and feeding people, Jesus didn’t go home and plop down on the couch. He went to a quiet place and continued spending hours in the presence of God.

Meanwhile the disciples were in the middle of the worst night of their lives.  Waves are smashing, water is splashing, things are getting tossed out of the boat, people are bouncing off each other, they are probably throwing up from sea sickness and they were far away from land…In other words, they had nothing to stand on that was solid. Have you ever been there?  Like no matter what you do, things don’t work.  That was when Jesus showed up.    Now, just because they saw Jesus didn’t mean that immediately the storm stopped and everything was perfect like a Crest commercial.  The wind continued, the waves continued, the splashing continued, and every other seemingly frightful thing continued.  One thing was different though.  Jesus showed up and in the midst of a life threatening situation, He tells these men, don’t fear!  Take courage! I am here!

I think that no matter where you are in life today, Jesus would look you right in the eyes and tell you not to fear.  Take courage!  He is with you! The fact that He met these men in their darkest hour is amazing.  All the commotion of what was going on around Jesus didn’t even remotely phase Him.  I believe the pressure of that storm encompassed Jesus but couldn’t touch, or harm him.  Guess what, If He is with you, the storm won’t touch you either.  We need to take some courage today and remind the storm that He is with us!  We don’t need to fear because God is with us and has delivered us out of the devils hands!

Give Your Worries Away

One of my favorite things to do (most nights) is to rock my children before they go to sleep. I use this time to pray over them, sing with them, and spend time with just them. They love to sing and have songs that they like to sing with me. One of those songs is one that I used to like when I was a kid. It’s called ‘I Cast My Cares’ and the words are simple.

I cast all my cares upon You
I lay all of my burdens down at your feet
And anytime that I don’t know what to do, 
I will cast all my cares upon You


The other night while we were rocking and singing this song I realized the truth in those words. So many times I am full of cares. Stuff from the day, thoughts of the future, things we need, fear and worry, and many other things bombard my mind on a daily basis. The reality is though - He is the One we can give our cares to, instead of holding them inside.

1 Peter 5:7 - Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

Psalm 55:22 - Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall.

He cares for you so much. He cares about what you care about, more than you care about it! Take some time out of your busy schedule and give Him the things that make you worry. Give Him the things that you think a lot about. Let Him take the things that you have cares about and let Him work on your behalf. He cares for YOU!

This Joy That I Have

When I was a kid we use to sing this song in children’s church.  You may have sung it as well.  It goes something like this (sing it with me), “This joy that I have, the world didn’t give it to me, the world didn’t give it, and the world can’t take it away!”  That part of the song has stuck with me! 

Have you ever had thoughts like:  Joy? What joy? I have no joy right now.  I might have joy if I could just catch a break. If I could just get caught up on my mortgage instead of always being 60 to 90 days late….then. If my family and my relationships were, well, just better…..then. If I could just get a better job……then. If I didn’t have these health problems……then.
I can’t tell you how many times those thoughts have come to me, and how many times something like those words have come out of my mouth.

Romans 12:2 tells us to not be conformed to this world and its way of thinking, but to be transformed by renewing our minds. This means we are to take what God says and throw away what the world says.  This world says that when all the conditions are just right, then we will be happy, satisfied, fulfilled and full of joy, however, in all my experience and I’m sure yours is the same, joy continues to elude us.  Just when we think we have it in our hands, somehow it slips through and we are off running after it again. 

If we could just remember this song!  Better yet we could sing it like this, “The world doesn’t have it, so the world can’t give it, therefore the world can’t take it away!”  But if the world doesn’t have it and doesn’t give it, then where can I get it?

Psalm 16:11(esv) You make known to me the path of life; in your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

We see that the fullness of joy is found in the Presence of God, which very simply means that in God’s Presence flows joy.  Today, come position yourself in the Presence of God and let the flow of joy fill you to overflowing.  Let it reach your deepest parts.  

Begin by thanking God for the finished work of Jesus on the cross, which makes you clean and enables you to come into His Presence.  Put on your favorite worship song and press repeat.  Stay there and let God fill you to overflowing with His joy.  You will be glad you did.