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What Do You Think About The Christ?

2/28/2015

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While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, “What do you think about the Christ? – Matthew 22:41

We conclude this month of devotions on thoughts and thinking with the question: What do you think about the Christ?

The fame of Jesus had spread far and wide. People from many countries had come to Jerusalem for the Passover. There were some there from Greece and they came seeking to see Jesus.

John records, “Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the Feast. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request, “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus” (John 12:20-21).

Everyone had an opinion about Jesus. The Pharisees and other religious leaders tried to convince the people that he was at best a fraud and was probably demon possessed. But the people were filled with awe when they saw him and cried out, “Who is this?”

Matthew chapter 16 records Jesus himself asking his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” The disciples had heard the rumors and comments by the people. “They replied, ‘Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’”

Then Jesus made the question personal to his disciples when he asked, “But what about you? Who do you say I am?” That is the core question today: Who do you say that Jesus is?

 Many religions of the world think of Jesus as a great teacher, some even concede that he was a prophet, but only Christianity declares that he is the Christ, the Son of God.

What do you personally think of Jesus? What does he mean to you? As Christians, our entire relationship with God is based upon what we think of Christ. Paul wrote in Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” What do you think of Jesus?

Prayer: Jesus, I believe that you are the Lord, and that you were raised from the dead, and that it was your sacrificial death that purchased for me the right to be born into the family of God. 


Take It A Little Deeper

In the study guide edition we include a section page which has these sections:

The main idea of the devotion is brought out in the Principle section:
Principle:  As Christians, our entire relationship with God is based upon what we think of Christ. Paul wrote in Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”





An affirmation of the principle is suggested:

Affirmation:  I do call Jesus my Lord because I believe he is the Christ, the Son of God and that he rose from the dead giving all believers the hope of resurrection.



The reflection section contains ideas questions and ideas which are good for personal reflection as well as for discussion in small groups: 
Reflection:  Every religion has an opinion about Jesus, but only Christianity recognizes him as the Christ, the Son of God. It would be good to give some time to reflect on your own thoughts, feelings and ideas about him.

The final section is a place to journal thoughts about the devotion and to write questions and ideas for small group discussion:
My Thoughts: 


________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________



If you enjoyed reading this devotion I would 
encourage you to get the entire month of the
Daily God Walk Devotional - It's Free

The Daily God Walk devotional focuses on "Thoughts" for this month. We look at what God is thinking about us, what we should be thinking, and much much more.

Get your FREE copy of this month Daily God Walk. There is no cost and no obligation. We only ask for your name and email address. To get this devotional just fill in your name and email address in the form below then click on "Yes - Send it"


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Daily God WAlk

2/26/2015

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God's Word Discerns Our Thoughts

The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
– Hebrews 4:12

Have you considered the purpose of the word of God? There are many ideas about God’s purpose in giving us his word, but I’m only going to give you my idea today. I see the word of God as coming from his knowledge of the nature of man and for the purpose of restoring man to the place of blessing he had originally intended for man.

God knows the heart of man and he knows that man, in a general sense, is in rebellion against his plan. God said, “Don’t eat the forbidden fruit!” Man said, “I wonder why God doesn’t want us to know the benefits of that fruit.” God said, “Here is the tree of life, eat from it, but leave the other fruit alone.” Man said, “Why is God always trying to steer me away from that tree?”

That may be a bit simplistic but I am convinced that it is very close to the truth. Because God knows the thoughts and intents of man he seeks to reveal to man a better way. God’s words are life and they are given to man to lead man into eternal life through faith in the provision he has given us in Jesus our Savior.

God knows the thoughts and attitudes of our heart and that is why his word is often piercing to us. He is trying to separate us from living after our soulful nature and draw us to living after his Spirit nature. That is what he meant by, “The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit.”

Let us not try to convince ourselves that by doing good works we can nullify what is in our hearts. God is not impressed by our works, but he is moved by what is in our hearts. We will never be without times of failure as long as we are in this body of death, but God looks past that and sees our heart. He is after our heart.

Prayer: Lord, help me to treasure your word, even when it is painful to me, because I know your goal is to separate me from my soulish nature and lead me into your Spirit life. In Jesus name.



Take It A Little Deeper

In the study guide edition we include a section page which has these sections:


The main idea of the devotion is brought out in the Principle section:
Principle:  God knows the thoughts and attitudes of our heart and that is why his word is often piercing to us. He is trying to separate us from living after our soulful nature and draw us to living after his Spirit nature.

An affirmation of the principle is suggested:
Affirmation:  God knows my thoughts and the desires of my heart and that is why I am constantly examining heart and my thought process to be sure that God's thoughts are my thoughts.

The reflection section contains ideas questions and ideas which are good for personal reflection as well as for discussion in small groups: 
 Reflection: If God judges the thoughts and attitudes of your heart, as Hebrews 4:12 says, then what is his conclusion about your thoughts and the things you have in your heart? Examine your recurring thoughts and measure them by Philippians 4:8. How do you measure up? 


The final section is a place to journal thoughts about the devotion and to write questions and
ideas for small group discussion:
My Thoughts:

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

If you enjoyed reading this devotion I would 
encourage you to get the entire month of the
Daily God Walk Devotional - It's Free

The Daily God Walk devotional focuses on "Thoughts" for this month. We look at what God is thinking about us, what we should be thinking, and much much more.

Get your FREE copy of this month Daily God Walk. There is no cost and no obligation. We only ask for your name and email address. To get this devotional just fill in your name and email address in the form below then click on "Yes - Send it"


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Thoughts That Divide

2/21/2015

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When the Pharisees heard this, they said, “It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.” Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.
– Matthew 12:24-25

These supposed religious leaders, the Pharisees, had seen the miracles Jesus performed and instead of recognizing him as one sent from God their thoughts carried them in the opposite direction. What kind of thinking would lead a person to call evil what is good?

The problem these men had was that if they admitted Jesus was who everyone was saying he was then they would be wrong about him and they would lose the respect of the people. They couldn’t allow that because their objective was not to lead people to God, but it was to secure their own place as a religious authority.

I have seen the same attitude in the religious world of today. Many of us have been raised with the belief system of a particular denomination, or if we weren’t raised that way we came to Christ in a particular church and we adopted their belief system. Our problem comes when we see someone who is not of our particular denomination manifesting miracles and great works in the name of Jesus.

We begin to think, just like the Pharisees, that these people must be of the devil because they are not acknowledging our particular belief system or doctrine. I know the process because I used to have those kinds of thoughts.

Jesus answered this line of thinking with a simple bit of logic. “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand?” (v25-26).

The Pharisees had thoughts that divide and we must be careful not to foster the same kind of thinking. Let us be careful lest we ascribe to darkness the good deeds of the light.


Rejoice in the works of others when Jesus is given the credit and God receives the glory, even if we don’t have complete doctrinal agreement.


 Prayer: Lord, help me not to judge others in my thoughts just because they don’t understand everything just the way I do. In Jesus name, amen.


Principle:  The Pharisees had thoughts that divide and we must be careful not to foster the same kind of thinking. Let us be careful lest we ascribe to darkness the good deeds of the light.

Affirmation:  I have chosen to rejoice in the works of others in which Jesus is given the credit and God receives the glory, even if I don't have complete doctrinal agreement with them.

Reflection:  Most of us have been guilty of discounting the works of others who are not in doctrinal agreement with us. That is human nature. But we are to rise above human nature and be guided by our new nature - the Christ nature in us. Rejoice in the good works of those you might not be in complete agreement with on doctrinal issues and give God the glory.

If you enjoyed reading this devotion I would 
encourage you to get the entire month of the

Daily God Walk Devotional - It's Free

The Daily God Walk devotional focuses on "Thoughts" for this month. We look at what God is thinking about us, what we should be thinking, and much much more.

Get your FREE copy of this month Daily God Walk. There is no cost and no obligation. We only ask for your name and email address. To get this devotional just fill in your name and email address in the form below then click on "Yes - Send it"


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Purge Your Thoughts of Anger

2/18/2015

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In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent. Selah – Psalm 4:4

I have a friend who is chronically homeless. He isn’t homeless because he can’t find work, in fact, he lived with us for about a year and he had at least five jobs during that time. He would get a job and work about two or three weeks then he would have an explosion of anger and get fired or just walk off the job.

Here is a man whose life is controlled by anger. You know what the crazy thing is? He is angry at his father that he hasn’t even seen in about 30 years. He doesn’t even know if his father is dead or alive, but he is still angry with him.

He has kept careful record in his mind of the bad things his father did to him. His most commonly repeated story is the time his father locked him out of the house for three days in the winter. He not only tells that story to whoever will listen but it is a tape which plays over and over in his mind.

I have talked with him many times about forgiving his father and moving on with his life, but he won’t even consider it. Not only did this man’s father control his youth, now, from the grave, he controls his senior years.

David writes, “In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent.” He is talking about getting a hold of our thought life. When we are in our bed we should examine our heart to see what kind of thoughts have gotten put there throughout the day.

Do you spend time thinking about the wrongs others have done to you? Do you think about things you wish would happen to them? Maybe you even think what you would do to them if you were sure no one would ever find out.

This passage is calling us to consider the things that have made us angry and wash them out of our heart through prayer and forgiveness. The other person may never acknowledge your forgiveness but at least you will get a good nights sleep.

Prayer: Lord, help me to not allow angry thoughts to dominate my thinking. Give me the grace to forgive and let go. Amen.


 If you enjoyed reading this devotion I would 
           encourage you to get the entire month of devotions



The Daily God Walk devotional focuses on "Thoughts" for this month. We look at what God is thinking about us, what we should be thinking, and much much more.

Get your FREE copy of this month Daily God Walk. There is no cost and no obligation. We only ask for your name and email address. To get this devotional just fill in your name and email address in the form below then click on "Yes - Send it"


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Daily God Walk

2/6/2015

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Man Is Enemy To God In His Mind

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior – Colossians 1:21

It all started in the Garden of Eden. God had created a paradise for Adam and Eve and he gave them only one rule. They weren’t allowed to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Everything was peaceful in the garden. There was no sin, no brokenness, and no evil.

The problem was in the way God created man. You see, God could have created man without the ability to think, plan or devise schemes. He could have created man with only the ability to be obedient and to serve at his whim. If we were God we probably would have done that because we like being served.

God didn’t want mankind to serve him because he had no other choice, but he wanted to create an environment that would show man his love and God’s hope was that man would return that love, receive his favor, and honor his gift of life.

With the entire garden at their disposal Adam and Eve were intrigued by the thing they could not have. The tempter saw their interest and appeared before them one day and began to talk to them about a new way to think.

The serpent got them to thinking about the reason God didn’t want them to have knowledge of good and evil. He made it sound like God was afraid that if they knew what he knew they would then be like him.

In that line of thinking a new god was born. This new god, born in the mind of man, became the object of worship for every person who has lived since. This god is enemy to the Lord God and has alienated man from God.

Who is this god? It is the god of ego, self will – it is the god in our own mind which says, “I am as god. I am the master of my own destiny. I don’t need another god.”

Only through Christ can our alienation from God be resolved his mind become our mind.


 

  If you enjoyed reading this devotion I would 
           encourage you to get the entire month of devotions


The Daily God Walk devotional focuses on "Thoughts" for this month. We look at what God is thinking about us, what we should be thinking, and much much more.

Get your FREE copy of this month Daily God Walk. There is no cost and no obligation. We only ask for your name and email address. To get this devotional just fill in your name and email address in the form below then click on "Yes - Send it"


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Daily God Walk

2/3/2015

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We Need God To Think of Us

May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation always say, “The Lord be exalted!” Yet I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer, O my God, do not delay.   – Psalm 40:16-17

We are all victims of the human condition. On one hand we are aware of the glory of the Lord and his salvation, and we praise God for his goodness; on the other hand we are very aware of our present need.

In this psalm David is praising God for his deliverance, but he is also addressing his continued need for God’s help. He begins this psalm with, “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.” David knew the God of deliverance, and he seemed too often get himself into situations where he needed deliverance.

David continues to reminisce about God’s help in his life. He writes, “He lifted me out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God” (v2-3). He goes on to speak of God’s faithfulness, love and truth. Then he appeals to that love: “Do not withhold your mercy from me, O Lord; may your love and your truth always protect me” (v11).

He goes on to declare that, “Troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see… Be pleased, O Lord, to save me.” It is in this state of contrite calling upon the name of the Lord that he cries, “Lord, think of me.”

This is familiar territory to all of us. We acknowledge the grace of God, his love, truth and mercy; it is to those attributes that we appeal as we cry, “Lord, think of me.” When we are overwhelmed by our humanness and we are aware of our need for divine intervention we agree with David, “I am poor and needy, may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer. O my God, do not delay.”

Prayer: It’s me again Lord, and I need you to think of me. Remember me in my humanness and delivery me from my sin. Don’t delay Lord, I need your grace today. In Jesus name, amen.




                   If you enjoyed reading this devotion I would 

           encourage you to get the entire month of devotions.

The Daily God Walk devotional focuses on "Thoughts" for this month. We look at what God is thinking about us, what we should be thinking, and much much more.

Get your FREE copy of this month Daily God Walk. There is no cost and no obligation. We only ask for your name and email address. To get this devotional just fill in your name and email address in the form below then click on "Yes - Send it"





Use the Daily God Walk for Small Group Discussions

Many people are using the Daily God Walk for Small Group discussions. In the Study Guide Edition we include an extra page for each devotion. That page includes the principle that is brought out in that devotion; an affirmation of the principle; a reflection section which gives seed thoughts for discussion; and a section for your thoughts. 


In the last section you can write down ideas and thoughts which come to you while reading the devotion and you can write down points for discussion. Some folks are even using the Daily God Walk as a tool to help them journal because it has a half page of lines on which to record their thoughts.


As an example below is the Study Guide page for this devotion:


                            We Need God to Think of Us Principle:  When we are overwhelmed by our humanness and we are aware of our need for divine intervention we agree with David, “I am poor and needy, may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer. O my God, do not delay.”

 Affirmation:  When I am overwhelmed by life I cry out to God, "Lord, think of me" - and he does.

 Reflection:  God has deliverance for us because he is thinking of our situation, but he desires that we should call upon him as a sign of our trust in him. Reflect on how David shows his trust in God as he writes this psalm. It would be good to record your thoughts as you consider how David responds to his troubles.

 My Thoughts:

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February 02nd, 2015

2/2/2015

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God's Thoughts Are Higher Than Ours

“My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” – Isaiah 55:8-9

Have you ever wondered about the kind of thoughts God has? We can be assured that his thoughts are on a different plane than ours because his perspective is so different than ours. God thinks in terms of the eternal and we think in terms of the temporal.

I remember a time many years ago that I visited Chicago. Now, Chicago is a huge city and when you are down on the streets you can’t see much. Tall buildings obscure the skyline and people are everywhere.

While in Chicago I visited the Sears building. That building has an observation area that is over 100 stories above ground level. That is over 1000 feet. From that observation deck you can see for miles. From that perspective there is an entirely different view of the city.

God is telling us in this passage that he sees from a different perspective than we do and that his thoughts are from his view point not ours. When he thinks about us he does so being able to see the whole picture, not the view we have that is obscured by everything around us at ground level.

That is why we should trust God, even when we aren’t so sure about the future. We make the best choices we can based on the knowledge we have, but God’s knowledge of the situation is much more complete than ours because he view it from a better view point.

We must remember that his ways are higher than ours and that his thoughts are from a much better position than ours. When we keep that in mind it is much easier to trust him.


Prayer: Lord, when I look at my circumstances from ground level I become fearful for my future. Grant me the grace to trust you and give me eyes to see what you see. In Jesus name, amen.


If you enjoyed reading this devotion I would encourage you to get the entire month of devotions.

The Daily God Walk devotional focuses on "Thoughts" for this month. We look at what God is thinking about us, what we should be thinking, and much much more.

Get your FREE copy of this month Daily God Walk. There is no cost and no obligation. We only ask for your name and email address. To get this devotional just fill in your name and email address in the form below then click on "Yes - Send it"


Use the Daily God Walk for Small Group Discussions

Many people are using the Daily God Walk for Small Group discussions. In the Study Guide Edition we include an extra page for each devotion. That page includes the principle that is brought out in that devotion; an affirmation of the principle; a reflection section which gives seed thoughts for discussion; and a section for your thoughts. 


In the last section you can write down ideas and thoughts which come to you while reading the devotion and you can write down points for discussion. Some folks are even using the Daily God Walk as a tool to help them journal because it has a half page of lines on which to record their thoughts.

As an example below is the Study Guide page for this devotion:

                            God’s Thoughts Are Higher Than Ours

Principle:  God sees from a different perspective than we do and that his thoughts are from his view point not ours. When he thinks about us he does so being able to see the whole picture, not the view we have that is obscured by everything around us at ground level.

Affirmation:  I am committed to seeking God for his view of my life and my future because his view is from a higher perspective than mine.

Reflection:  God views our life from the perspective of eternity and we view it from the perspective of our limited knowledge. How does that make God's perspective better than ours? 
 
My Thoughts:


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