The Background.

A Christian rapper, Lecrae, came out with a new album back in September and this devotion is inspired by one of his new songs called “Background”. This song has really been convicting to me personally because with doing devotions on something as public as Facebook comes the easiness to let my name be out instead of God’s. Please listen to the song and focus on the lyrics by using the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIdFRe3d2yw

The song starts off saying, “I could play the background, ‘cause I know sometimes I get in the way, so won’t you take the lead?” There is a time in our life when we get a little power happy or feel that we can just do life on our own. We reject God and take the spotlight and try to lead the way.  We get in the way of the One who is really in control, and then we turn and complain why good things don’t happen in our lives and why we keep messing up. We are human; therefore we are prone to make mistakes.

God is the potter and we are His clay, God is the director and we are His actors, yet we act like we are the potter and our followers are the clay or we are the director and our followers are our actors. There is a verse in Matthew that talks about how we can get caught up in this world. It is written in Matthew 16:26, “And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?” I have one thing to remind you of: Earth and everything in and on it is TEMPORARY. This life, the mistakes you make, the friends you grow close to, the money you make, the fame you gain is all temporary, but there is an eternal life that consists of eternal happiness and an eternal soul. You and I both know that I am talking about Heaven, and your crown awaits you in the eternal realm, so why get in the way of God in a temporary world?

Influence is an insanely powerful quality, if not the most powerful aspect of the human nature. There are influences sex and fame from Lady Gaga, and influences towards swearing, drugs, and hittin’ the clubs from Lil’ Wayne, and influences that getting on TV and playing a role is the only way to fame from Hollywood, all dragging us down in this temporary world. Our integrity is who we are when people aren’t watching, and when you pull your iPod out and Lady Gaga and Weezy are the first two artists you go for, think about the influence that is being played out. Brent Crowe once said, “Your life is the only Bible that some people will read, so what are they reading?” Think about how something so small as what you play out your speakers could influence how a person lives their life. What if your influence was reading your Bible and worshipping God freely? What kind of change would occur in the world if you stood up and made a difference by allowing God to take control and by saying that you want God to draw the figure that you need to be, and that you are ready to trace the lines.

Allow God to take the lead in your life and He will do incredible things. This is the creator and destroyer of everything we are talking about here… I think it’s crazy that we fear the atomic bomb, yet not the creator of the atom. We fear death, but not the One who conquered death. What are your priorities? Where does God rank in your life?

Prayer:

Dear God,

I thank You for this day. Thank You for allowing me to be spoken through in such a thing as devotions on Facebook. Move me out of the way, and allow me to shadow You by sharing Your message with the hearts of those paying attention. Let us play the background, and take over the lives of each of us. Let us fear You, and know that You are in control of everything at ALL times. Thank You for having a plan for me and for forgiving me when I don’t deserve it. Help me to get through life as an influence for You while I am here temporarily. We pray this in Your name. Amen.

Being a Christian: Worth the Pain

There is one complaint that I hear all the time from many different people: This is too _______ (stressful, much, overwhelming, insane, etc.). Why does life have to be so hard? As a Christian, persecution is an experience of a lifetime for each of us. The question that I've had on my heart to share with each of you is this: "Is it worth the pain?"


I was listening to a song that has become a quick favorite of my brother, Mitchell and I called "Worth the Pain" by Disciple, and it talks about persecution as a Christian. The song opens up saying "The light at the end has faded away, one terror after another. Somewhere in the fire the embers of faith will burn through tomorrow." There is a point in each of our lives when we are going through a rough spot and there seems to be no end to what we are going through; one bad thing after another causes stress and anxiety in our lives. Then at the breaking point when enough is enough, the faith that you have sparks and soon burns through the problems in our lives. I had one of my best friend's tell me a quote that his brother always reminds him: "We tend to make our problems greater than the size of God." We sit in our own pity and distress and think woe is us and that nothing can get us out of the hole that we are in, when the size of God blows away any problem in our life.


I find it interesting that the writer of this song uses two verses to write this song: Matthew 5:44-45 and James 1:2-4. Each of these two verses speaks a separate message, but brings the two messages into one topic: persecution. Matthew 5:44-45 begins with Jesus giving what is known as one of the greatest commands in history, "But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in Heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and send rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." This is one of the greatest commands that we are ever given, yet i is one of the most forsaken. The task of loving all of your enemies and praying for those who persecute you can be very grueling, trust me. We tend to think of prayer as almost a wish list for our own lives thrown in with your friends: "Dear God, thank you for this day, please help me to be the husband that I need to be and help my wife to seek you and my dog to get better, amen." Prayer is to be in conversation with God and to lift up those in need; how selfish of each of us to pray for ourselves. That would be basically the same as being trapped in a mine and pushing everyone over so that you can get out: everybody is in need of God and we all want to be prayed for, but praying for ourselves if selfish. James 1:2-4 is very practical about persecution and puts what persecution does into one key phrase: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James describes what persecution teaches us perfectly here in these few verses: a testing (or in some translations: a building) of our faith and a maturing process.


When you are going through a rough time or persecution, if you forget all of what is written above, just remember one person that went through more persecution than you will ever have to face: Jesus Christ. He took on the crown of thorns, the lashes of a lead tipped whip, the nails of the cross, and HE CONQUERED DEATH. Praise Him for stepping into a world filled with sin and saving someone so undeserving of His love as us.


In Christ,
Spencer

Be a Rebel

You see this title and you probably think something like, “Being a rebel isn’t a good thing.” It all depends on what you are rebelling from. Before reading this devotion, I have a song. I’d like to give you a heads up that this is a Christian Rapper named Lecrae. He is great, and I ask that even if you don’t like rap that you would look at the lyrics and just listen.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWnrUgzlHyQ

The word "rebellion" means "opposition to one in authority". When you hear the word "rebel" or "rebellion" you probably think of things like a fighter, or someone who is crazy, or that kid next to you in Math class that talks back to your teacher. Everybody is a rebel in some sort of way. You have to make a choice for yourself to choose who is in authority. Spiritually, we are to choose who is going to control our lives. We can choose to let Buddha control it, we can even let ourselves try and control it, but ultimately, GOD is ALWAYS in control of EVERYTHING.

Temptations are a part of life. Even Jesus was tempted by Satan, but the difference between Jesus and man is that Jesus never gave into temptation. We all have some sort of temptation that we have given into during our lifetime. What we should do is not let it defeat us, but to defeat it. Ways to defeat it? Read God's Word, surround yourself with strong Christian people, get rid of anything tempting to take you back into that pit of temptation. Separate yourself as far away from the line of temptation that you can.

As teens and adults, we face many trials and temptations. A few that I'd like to focus on today are these: SWEARING, BAD MUSIC, PORNOGRAPHY, RACISM, and HATRED.
I want to take the time to cover each one as brief as I can because you probably are dealing with one or more of these.

1. SWEARING - Sometime in all of our lives, we have probably cussed at least once. Some of us are frequent and some of us used to. Some of us may never have and God bless those people. I just googled "What is wrong with swearing" and here is what I got from the first link.

Swearing Imposes a Personal Penalty
It gives a bad impression
It makes you unpleasant to be with
It endangers your relationships
It's a tool for whiners and complainers
It reduces respect people have for you
It shows you don't have control
It's a sign of a bad attitude
It discloses a lack of character
It's immature
It reflects ignorance
It sets a bad example

Swearing is Bad for Society
It contributes to the decline of civility
It represents the dumbing down of America
It offends more people than you think
It makes others uncomfortable
It is disrespectful of others
It turns discussions into arguments
It can be a sign of hostility
It can lead to violence

Swearing corrupts the English language
It's abrasive, lazy language
It doesn't communicate clearly
It neglects more meaningful words
It lacks imagination
It has lost its effectiveness

If you can give me more reasons of why swearing is good, then I will say it is alright, but last time I checked, God wasn't kidding when he said in Matthew 12:36-37, "But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." For by your words, you will be condemned. Is swearing worth it?! NO! James 3:1-12 is perfect for taming the tongue, in fact, that is exactly what that entire passage is about.

2. BAD MUSIC - With the topic of bad music we go right back to swearing. The same reasons go for bad music. I'd like to also add these two comments. 1. The music you play and sing to is going to be played through your life. (If your listening to a song about sex or drugs or swearing then watch it be represented in your life FAST). 2. Is that music good enough to play in front of Jesus? Imagine yourself standing in front of Jesus and God and the most Godly people and Angels at the Gates of Heaven, and God says "Play some of your favorite songs like that Tik Tok song for me and I will see if it is worthy for Heaven." If that doesn't change your idea on the music you listen to, then I'm not sure what will.

3. PORNOGRAPHY - Here's the topic that when you see the name you cringe up and get all akward. Pornography is well and alive and its only one click away! Why is it bad if God made us in HIS image? Here are a few reasons without going into great detail of why it is so bad:

- It is so addictive and it just captures you in a deep hole.
- It feeds the lust of your eyes.
- It warps your mind around perverted thoughts.
- It makes you feel embarrassed for watching.
- It makes you weak and you easily give into sin.
- It damages your reputation when the truth comes out.
- It increases your tendency to lie.
- It will make you uncomfortable around friends or family of the opposite sex.
- It lets you believe lies that only make you dig a deeper hole.

If the fate of Heaven or Hell depended on your Internet History or what you saw on that last video chat or what's on your IPhone background, what would be worthy in the eyes of God?

4. RACISM - Racist jokes sure do give you a good kick sometimes, but once you really know what you are saying and it comes down to God's eyes and not your buddies eyes, it's not so funny anymore is it? When you make fun of someone because they are Black, White, Jewish, Asian, or whatever race, you are making fun of the image of God. Genesis 1:27 says "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." Everybody is made in God's image so the next time that you make fun of someone because of the color of the skin or even how they look or dress or their social status or the last facebook post they had, you are making fun of the image of God. Keep that at heart.

5. HATRED - Hatred is something that should be obviously bad off the bat, but many of us fall prey to it. Even out of sarcasm many of us will "joke" and say "I hate you" but the next minute it's "I love you". God tells us in His Word specifically that harsh words stir up anger. He also asks of us in Ephesians 4:29, "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear." Be loving and kind to one another, and love others like you love Jesus because that is EXACTLY what He asks of us.

I wanted to break those down because most or all of us fall in at least one of those categories of sin. There is a way to break that, and that way is to be a rebel. Rebel against swearing, Rebel against bad music, Rebel against pornography, Rebel against racism, Rebel against hatred, Rebel against any temptation and sin that is separating you and God. Be a Rebel for Christ and REBEL against sin. Sin is not a rebellion because everyone is doing it, but not everyone is reading their Bibles or praying daily. With that being said, be a rebel for Christ.

Prayer:
Dear God,

I thank you for this day. I thank you for the opportunity to have this group to share what you have for your people to say. Lord, I take things like this for granted sometimes, and I ask that you continue to show me how GREAT you are. Even though we forsake you I thank you personally from my heart that you will never leave us nor forsake us. Lord, there are temptations out on TV, and on the Internet, and other things that man has made corrupted in your eyes, but I ask that you personally give every single person the strength and courage to rebel against these temptations and to flee to you at the blink of an eye. We don't know when our time is up, so I ask that you never let us take anything or anyone for granted. Sometimes we take our best friends and family for granted, and I ask that you give us your eye to see that. I ask you to let us beat these sins and temptations by your hand because we cannot do it on our own. Let us live every second for you and ONLY you. Give us each a strong testimony to share with the world so that your kingdom may be furthered. I love you and thank you for this day and I pray this in your name, Amen.