This is from a daily devotion that my brother Riley and I are doing and I just wanted to share it with you!
Let’s feast on this important truth today: God has called us to bring life to things that look dead – it’s who we are! Romans 4:17 says that God “gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did”; we are made in His image so we get to do what our Father does.
All of us have dead looking areas in our lives; everyone has at least one area of life that looks really dead. It may even be screaming at us, “This situation really is impossible!” I have a phrase I like to use in response to this apparent hopelessness: “Let’s just laugh at that!”
Let’s remember this truth: our hopelessness about a problem is a bigger problem than the problem. One of the greatest ways to break off hopelessness is to prophesy over ourselves. The Bible says, “Let the weak say ‘I am strong.'”Let’s declare, “We are strong people going through a weak experience.” Let us refuse to create our identity by our feelings or our circumstances.
John 18:19-23 19 Meanwhile, the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. 20 “I have spoken openly to the world,” Jesus replied. “I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. 21 Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said.” 22 When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby slapped him in the face. “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” he demanded. 23 “If I said something wrong,” Jesus replied, “testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?”
What Jesus says here is so simple, but so powerfully true. He didn’t hide what He said and it was never false.
Likely not at the risk of crucification; are our words so true and so accurate that there is no argument to them? Are we bold enough in our faith that those around us would agree if we said that we had t hidden anything?
I feel like this verse makes a great point about how we should be professing our faith.
I hope you had a great day in the trenches. Continue to be exceptional at being you.
May we be compelled by the love and example of Christ to love another as Christ loved and loves us. May we honor those who have laid down their lives for us.
May the Lord bless you and lead you as you reflect on Memorial Day today.
1 Kings 1:6 6 (His father had never rebuked him by asking, “Why do you behave as you do?” He was also very handsome and was born next after Absalom.)
We’ve been reading about David. As revered as he was and the fact that he was chose. And was a man after God’s own heart always amazes me.
With all of the things that he did or didn’t do, not keeping his children in check ranks right up there. Proverbs 13:24, “Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them.”
Let’s make sure we’re building the next generation in a positive way. Building them up, but discipline them when needed. That might be the children, but it also might be students or coworkers who are younger than we are who need guidance.
Let’s make them better in a world that isn’t seeming to right now.
I hope it was a great day in the trenches. Be exceptional at being you.
Mark 2:3-5 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them.4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
Pastors, we take you for granted too often. We lift you up in prayer. Make it a great one.
With this being Memorial Day Weekend, we should honor those who fought for our country and be thankful for all that they have done and for their sacrifices.
The people in the military have to depend on others to do their jobs with extreme efficiency because they are truly in life and death situations. Their circle of comrades has to be trustworthy.
Today’s title is from the US Army’s creed. Be someone who takes care of others. Be someone who would carry a disabled friend to Jesus due to a high level of faith. Be someone who doesn’t leave others behind.
Make it a great week in the trenches. Be exceptional at being you.
Lie 5 – You are still in emotional pain from the person who wronged you, so you believe you can’t forgive until you have worked through all of your wounds. However, forgiveness is not the absence of pain but the presence of mercy. What’s important to note is that just because you forgive someone it doesn’t mean the pain of the offense will leave you automatically (although it might). Jesus forgave us while hanging on the cross but the pain from the nails and beating remained. Walking out forgiveness and the process of walking out of pain are often two different things.
Choose Freedom Today
Unforgiveness is like an octopus, it has many tentacles that seep into your soul, and choke out your life. If you’re living in torment then I’d like to propose that working through forgiveness will deliver you from bondage and free you to begin living in peace!
My prayer for you today is that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened to see any areas of your life that are under the influence of unforgiveness. Remember that God is Redeemer of all things! There’s nothing in your life that is too messy, too big, too painful, too scary or even too ugly for him to make whole!
(This was a portion of a blog written by Kris Valloton that I wanted to share, I did not write this)
Last Friday a great man of God went to be with Jesus. Tim Keller is one of my favorite Christian leaders whose love for Jesus, his love for others, combined with his humble, wise, leadership really impacted the network of churches that I am a member of. There is not enough space to honor him so I have just a few below. Google his quotes and books. Read more about him as he is a model of Christlikeness.
From his church:
Thank you Timothy Keller.
Thank you for explaining the gospel over and over again. Thank you that your ministry and personal life reflected this great gospel. Thank you for loving people by studying and knowing them so you could present a gospel message with which they could relate and engage. Thank you for showing us, through scripture, how God loves cities so we could love and serve cities. Thank you for inspiring us to pray for and work toward gospel movement in the great cities of the world. Thank you for investing in leaders who are now loving their cities, sharing the gospel with their neighbors, and training more leaders to carry on the work.
You would be the first to say that all glory goes to God. It’s his work that he graciously invites us into and allows us to participate. God is at work always and everywhere, and we are excited to see the gospel continue to move forward and transform individuals, churches, communities and cities across the globe.
We miss you already. But the work will continue—is continuing right now. Because it’s God’s work and his story of redemption. That’s where we get our hope, our direction and our confidence.
With great sadness we mourn the loss of TGC co-founder Timothy Keller, 72, who died today, more than three years after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
“Today the Christian world is in mourning, for one of our great leaders has departed this life,” TGC interim president Sandy Willson said. “He will be remembered among this generation’s most effective Christian pastors, apologists, and evangelists. Tim not only made the most articulate arguments for the Christian faith; he also demonstrated our faith with his humble and gracious spirit and his relentless passion to see the lost come to know the Lord he so loved.”
Here is one of his many great quotes: “To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.” —Timothy Keller
From The Daily Keller page from another Tim he impacted:
“ I don’t have the words to express the debt of gratitude I owe this man. I had the extreme privilege of meeting Tim in person and getting this photo with him back in 2012 in New York. Invited as a guest to attend his Faith and Work Conference through the influence of my social media “fan” account @dailykeller
I began the @dailykeller Twitter account shortly after reading Tim’s New York Times Bestseller, The Reason for God. I was so moved and changed by that book, especially all the profound one-liners, that I believed others would be encouraged by reading a simple quoted sentence each day from Tim Keller. At that time, Dr. Keller did not have a personal account of his own on Twitter, so my little fan account blew up to over 100,000 followers in a very short time span. Unsurprisingly, his words were loved by thousands across the globe. Redeemer, the church he pastored in New York noticed the public impact of my account and invited me to attend and live tweet his conference. I still only had a flip phone at the time, so they donated an iPad to use for those few days and I did my best to keep up with the wise words that were spoken over those 2 days in Manhattan.
During a quick intermission I was invited to meet Tim briefly for about 5 minutes. Extremely nervous and standing about a foot shorter than him I was introduced, shook his hand, and made a little small talk (which I am awful at). But I knew I wasn’t leaving him before telling him one thing. It still brings me to tears now as it did then. I looked up at him and told him in a shaky, quivering voice, “Tim, I just have to tell you one thing… You made Jesus beautiful to me.” And he looked me in the eyes and in his gentle, and similar choked up voice, nodded and quietly said, “That’s the point.”
Tim, I love you. Thank you for making Jesus beautiful to me and thousands of people like me. I am jealous of the joy you now have in the beautiful, loving arms of Jesus Himself. Well done, faithful servant, teacher, and friend.”
Edward Everett Hale, Chaplain of the United States Senate from 1903-1909, once wrote;
“I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. What I can do, I should do and, with the help of God, I will do.”
May that be our declaration as men; that we will do what we can, we will do the right thing, and we will partner with God to get done what we can in the glimpse of our life before our eternity with our Creator.
The Manly Message 
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