– Scripture:

               Place Your Life Before GOD

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking around life and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. 

                       Romans 12:1-4 MSG

 – Reflection:

Always recognize what GOD wants from you, and respond quickly to him. Don’t make him wait; that could cause your test to take longer. Taking longer can make you walk away from the path that our savior has placed you on. God brings the best out of us and wants to see us get the best. You see, if we are answering GOD quickly and ensuring those needs are met, yours will be, too.

Where do we go from here?

The reflection above seems and sounds so simple, doesn’t it? If so, then why is it that so many of us fail to follow his words and paths to the level where we can benefit from the blessings that he has for us? For me, I am ensuring that I am following the words he has written on my heart and adding the electrical current to keep me pressing on. I would hope that many of you reading this will do the same.

Our Prayer for Today

Father, thank you for allowing me to pursue you and allowing me to bring others into your presence with me. I am forever grateful for the work that you have given me; I hope that I can bring honor to that work. It is a wonderful journey that I have been placed on to help you and others recognize the goodness of the Father above. In Jesus’ Name, we all said. Amen.

 – Scripture:

                   Keep Rising

As it turned out, God was with Joseph and things went very well with him. He ended up living in the home of his Egyptian master. His master recognized that God was with him, saw that God was working for good in everything he did. He became very fond of Joseph and made him his personal aide. He put him in charge of all his personal affairs, turning everything over to him. From that moment on, God blessed the home of the Egyptian—all because of Joseph. The blessing of God spread over everything he owned, at home and in the fields, and all Potiphar had to concern himself with was eating three meals a day.

                              Genesis 39:2-6a MSG

 – Reflection:

When Pharaoh needed someone to run the country during the famine, he didn’t choose his department head. He chose Joseph, a prisoner, a slave. Why? Joseph developed his skills where he was. He asked God for wisdom and offered solutions to problems. His gifts made room for him, and he always rose to the top. There’s never an excuse not to keep rising. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like your current job or if other people don’t treat you right. God says, “It’s time to get out of the pit. It’s time to rise to the top.”

Where Do we go from here?

Many heroes of the faith started out at the very bottom. Think of Joseph. He was thrown into a pit and sold into slavery by his own brothers. But even as a slave, he developed his skills and was so valuable that he was put in charge of his master’s whole household. When he was falsely accused and imprisoned, he was so valuable there that they put him in charge of the whole prison.

Our Prayer for Today

Father, thank You for the gifts and talents that You have given us. Thank You for calling us to keep developing our skills and being our best in whatever we do. We choose to be a blessing no matter what our situation is, knowing You are causing us to rise to the top. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

 – Scripture:

                   Away from Destruction

Then the People of Israel violated the holy curse. Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah, took some of the cursed things. God became angry with the People of Israel. Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai The Ruin, near Beth Aven just east of Bethel. He instructed them, “Go up and spy out the land.” The men went up and spied on Ai. They returned to Joshua and reported, “Don’t bother sending a lot of people—two or three thousand men are enough to defeat Ai. Don’t wear out the whole army; there aren’t many people there.” So three thousand men went up—and then fled in defeat before the men of Ai! The men of Ai killed thirty-six—chased them from the city gate as far as The Quarries, killing them at the descent. The people’s hearts sank, and all spirit was knocked out of them. Joshua ripped his clothes and fell on his face to the ground before the Chest of God. He and the leaders, throwing dirt on their heads, prostrate until evening. Joshua said, “Oh, oh, oh … Master, God. Why did you insist on bringing these people across the Jordan? To make us victims of the Amorites? To wipe us out? Why didn’t we just settle down on the east side of the Jordan? Oh, Master, what can I say after this, after Israel has been run off by its enemies? When the Canaanites and all the others living here get wind of this, they’ll gang up on us and make short work of us—and then how will you keep up your reputation?” God said to Joshua, “Get up. Why are you groveling? Israel has sinned: They’ve broken the covenant I commanded them; they’ve taken forbidden plunder—stolen and then covered up the theft, squirreling it away with their own stuff. The People of Israel can no longer look their enemies in the eye—they themselves are plunder. I can’t continue with you if you don’t rid yourselves of the cursed things. “So get started. Purify the people. Tell them: Get ready for tomorrow by purifying yourselves. For this is what God, the God of Israel, says: There are cursed things in the camp. You won’t be able to face your enemies until you have gotten rid of these cursed things. “First thing in the morning, you will be called up by tribes. The tribe God names will come up clan by clan; the clan God names will come up family by family; and the family God names will come up man by man. The person found with the cursed things will be burned, he and everything he has, because he broke God’s covenant and did this despicable thing in Israel.”

Joshua 7:1–15 MSG

Key Verse – Why are you groveling? Israel has sinned: They’ve broken the covenant I commanded them; they’ve taken forbidden plunder—stolen and then covered up the theft, squirreling it away with their own stuff. The People of Israel can no longer look their enemies in the eye—they themselves are plunder.

– Reflection:

This is another problematic story about the destruction of Jericho and the violent consequences for the disobedient, but it raises questions for us. When do we take what isn’t ours and damage our community? Gathering resources, we don’t need just to have extra when others are desperate; for example, When do we take advantage of destruction for personal gain? Gouging prices after a natural disaster, for example, How can we be faithful to God’s intention for us and avoid the temptation that leads us astray? Removing ourselves from toxic relationships, for example: What are your examples?

Where do we go from here?

“Immediately after the story of Jericho, there was trouble! On the seventh day of marching around the city walls, the priests blew their trumpets, the people shouted, and the walls tumbled down. Joshua instructed the Israelites to gather all sacred items from the rubble and avoid “things devoted to destruction.” 

We have to stay away from the things that bring others down and not bring those things under our cover. Even though they look as though it would help your situation to grow, it is almost always the case where you brought an issue into your family trying to grow your business or help someone outside your family. Leave things that have been destroyed by GOD where they are and allow him to work that out. Don’t just take something from any shattered relationship, business, etc… God will give us everything we need to accomplish the work he has for us. We only need to trust him like Joshua.

Our Prayer for Today

Father, keep us faithful to you. Strengthen us with an awareness of your presence and give us courage in the face of temptation. In Jesus Name, we pray. Amen.

 – Scripture:

                The Rule of Love

My dear friends, don’t let public opinion influence how you live out our glorious, Christ-originated faith. If a man enters your church wearing an expensive suit, and a street person wearing rags comes in right after him, and you say to the man in the suit, “Sit here sir; this is the best seat in the house!” and either ignore the street person or say, “Better sit here in the back row,” haven’t you segregated God’s children and proved that you are judges who can’t be trusted?

                        James 2:1–4 MSG

 – Reflection:

We all tend toward partiality. Sometimes, with forethought, many times with no thought, we give or withhold based upon the characteristics of the people or persons. We can, therefore, find ourselves directing all our time and attention, our kindness and generosity, toward only those who live, look, sound, spend, and sin as we do. This plays out in many areas of our lives and, therefore, many areas of faith in service, giving, worship, and brotherhood. 

Where do we go from here?

The brother of our savior, James, told us in the scripture above that we should not use any separation tactics, but we still all base relationships on how the people(s) fit into our lives. Look around. Who are you spending time with? Whom are you serving? There should be people in your life who are nothing like you. Are there?

Our Prayer for Today

Father, thank you for allowing us to make friends wherever we are in life and to be able to discern the blessing we are to all of your people. There have been times when I have fallen short in this area of friends; I know now that if a person needs me, I am to work with them in the capacity available at that very moment. It is my honor to love those around me as I love myself. In Jesus name we will continue to the work placed before us. Amen. 

 – Scripture:

                Ordinary to Extraordinary

As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came to meet him, shouting in triumph. And then the Spirit of God came on him with great power. The ropes on his arms fell apart like flax on fire; the thongs slipped off his hands. He spotted a fresh donkey jawbone, reached down and grabbed it, and with it, killed the whole company.

And Samson said:
With a donkey’s jawbone
I made heaps of donkeys of them.
With a donkey’s jawbone
I killed an entire company.

                          Judges 15:14–16 MSG

Key Verse – (15) He spotted a fresh donkey jawbone, reached down and grabbed it, and with it killed the whole company.

 – Reflection:

Samson was born to a mother who was ordinary and of tiny beginnings; they worked in the fields for others for pay. Like we do in our jobs today, so ordinary people. God sent an angel to this woman telling her, a woman who cannot have kids, that she is pregnant. Samson was extraordinary and came from an ordinary woman. It was the blessings that GOD placed over his life before birth that made him who he is. Reading that story of those meager beginnings that still became extraordinary is amazing. God does that every day for those who come to him and honor him.

Where do we go from here?

You don’t have to be bigger, stronger, or tougher to overcome obstacles. You don’t have to have great talent, the best education, or a certain personality to do something great. When you honor God with your life, you have the most powerful force in the universe breathing in your direction. God knows how to take what you may feel is ordinary and make it extraordinary. What makes the difference is God’s anointing on your life when you give Him what you have.

Our Prayer for Today

Father, thank you for creating all of us nobodies; we are good just as we are. Thanks for giving us the power to overcome the things you have placed in our paths. We have everything we need within us. We believe that we have exactly what we need to fulfill our destinies. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.