“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.� Hebrews 10:24

Within your four walls is so much more than a residence for your family…
It can be a house of ministry with eternal impact!
For example…

Carol regularly takes in foster children or the homeless.

Susie finds neighbors to minister to… like lonely seniors, divorcees, or women stricken with cancer.

Donna writes letters to hospitalized or home bound friends and includes her children in the task.

Carolyn invites neighborhood children to come to play with her own.

Then she’ll ask their mothers to come for lunch or coffee when it’s time to pick them up.

While Judy’s husband travels, she’ll invite another stay-at-home mom to join her for lunch or picnic.

Sandi invites international students to join her family on holidays.

Friend, share God’s love in tangible ways!
You will find an open door to tell them about Jesus!

You can comment on this devotional online at:
http://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2009/10/28/vb_ministry/

Spirituality is a popular subject these days. Whole stores are filled with books and various gadgets that are sold to help one get in touch spiritually. There is just so much out there and at times one can feel confused about it all.

In these days of growing awareness in the spiritual and the supernatural, God gives us guidance as to what to watch for. He tells us how to grow in our spiritual life without confusion. He spells it out for us quite simply:

“Grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.� (2 Peter 3:18)

True spirituality moves you toward knowledge of Jesus as the Influencer of your heart. If something or someone other than Jesus takes front and center stage in your search for spirituality, be on guard. Guard your heart from merely knowledge of religious facts or focusing on special powers or energy. True spirituality is allowing Jesus’ influence on your heart to reflect change in the way you handle yourself. It is His power at work in you.

If you desire to develop spiritually, allow Jesus to influence your heart and your choices in a greater way today. Allow His influence to cause you to turn from the choices that exclude Him, and to accept His forgiveness. Ask for His wisdom to help you determine if a particular activity or source of information will increase your understanding of how Jesus can influence your heart and your life. Anything less is a cheap counterfeit.

Father God,
There is so much out there today on spirituality. Please help me to grow in my knowledge of Jesus and His strength in my life as my Savior. Help me to grow in allowing Your influence upon my heart in such a way that it changes how I live. Forgive me for the times when I have focused on spirituality that was not centered on Jesus. Help me to be discerning and wise as I grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, my Lord and my Savior. In His strong name I pray, amen.

Question: How can you seek to grow spiritually in the next week, month, and year?

You can comment on this devotional online at:
http://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2009/10/11/gr_spirituality/

___________________________________________________________
Christian Wallpaper for your computer. Get the new wallpaper at:
http://www.thoughts-about-god.com/wallpaper/
___________________________________________________________

“Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.�
Jeremiah 17:7-8

In our well-intended effort to protect our children from the effects of an increasingly secular and self-absorbed culture, I wonder if we are growing spindly saplings instead of sturdy oaks?

Children are naturally curious about anything they perceive as “forbidden fruit.� Have you ever watched a toddler who has been told “don’t touch�?? As soon as the parent’s head is turned, little fingers reach toward the hot oven door, wet paint or sharp knife.

How much better it would be to read together the questionable book, sit side by side during the dubious movie or television program, and then discuss the subject in light of our being called citizens of the Kingdom of God.

First-century Christ followers were not all adults. Children also lived under the reign of godless tyrants. They, too, were slandered for their faith. Entire families lived in caves. They were stripped of the support of extended family as they became “scattered exiles� (1 Peter 1:1).

It is wise to support seedlings fresh out of moist earth, but robust trees are formed when they learn to bear the hot sun, drenching rain and howling winds. Only then do the trees create seeds which abundantly reproduce.

Lord, you know how much I want to protect my children from all harm and evil. You understand how my heart breaks when they make poor choices. Teach me how and when to intervene so they will be strong enough to withstand all that life throws at them.

You can comment on this devotional online at:
http://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2009/09/18/me_trees/

“But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” Proverbs 4:18 (KJV).

I had just finished giving a message, challenging students and young executives to commit their lives to helping to fulfill the Great Commission when Steve approached me with words that shocked me. I had known him for a long time and believed his life to be totally committed to Christ.

“If I were to respond to your challenge to take what I have to the rest of the world,” he said, “I’m afraid not much would be accomplished, because my brand of Christianity -quite frankly – is not that attractive, exciting or fruitful.”

He went on to share how he was not experiencing the joy of the resurrection in his life. The study of the Word of God had no appeal, his prayer life was nil and it had been a long time since he had introduced anyone to Christ. His outward evidence of being a man of God was just a facade, by his own admission.

What about you? Is your brand of Christianity truly the revolutionary, first-century kind that helped turn the world upside down and that changed the course of history? If not, it can be – and that is what this daily devotional guide is all about.

Every Christian needs to echo daily the sentiments of an unknown poet:

My life shall touch a dozen lives
Before this day is done,
Leave countless marks of good or ill,
Ere sets the evening sun.
This, the wish I always wish,
The prayer I always pray;
Lord, may my life help other lives
It touches by the way.

That goal should reign supreme during my waking hours – to touch lives for eternity. For if the all-powerful God, in the Person of His Holy Spirit, truly lives and reigns and triumphs, surely I can tap into that supernatural power and give evidence of it in my life.

Bible Reading: Proverbs 4:14-19

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: Knowing that this dark world desperately needs light, I will trust God to let His light shine through me today. I pray that my life will be so radiant, joyful, attractive and fruitful for Christ that it will demonstrate the kind of Christianity that can be exported to others, to members of my family, neighbors and friends, as well as to people in other countries.

You can comment on this devotional online at:
http://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2009/09/17/bb_sharing/

A man and his dog are in the same car. The dog howls bright-moon-in-the-middle-of-the-night caterwauling howls. The man pleads, promising a daily delivery of dog biscuit bouquets if only the hound will hush. After all, it’s only a car wash.

Never occurred to him (ahem, or to me) that the car wash would scare my dog. But it did. Placing myself in her paws, I can see why. A huge, noisy machine presses toward us, pounding our window with water, banging against the door with brushes. Duck! We’re under attack.

“Don’t panic. The car wash was my idea.” “I’ve done this before.” “It’s for our own good.” Ever tried to explain a car wash to a canine? Dog dictionaries are minus the words brush and detail job. My words fell on fallen flaps. Nothing helped. She just did what dogs do; she wailed.

Actually, she did what we do. Don’t we howl? Not at car washes perhaps but at hospital stays and job transfers. Let the economy go south or the kids move north, and we have a wail of a time. And when our Master explains what’s happening, we react as if he’s speaking Yalunka. We don’t understand a word he says.

Is your world wet and wild? God’s greatest blessings often come costumed as disasters. Some of you doubt it. How can God use cancer or death or divorce? Simple.

He’s smarter than we are. He is to you what I was to four-year-old Amy. I met her at a bookstore. She asked me if I would sign her children’s book. When I asked her name, she watched as I began to write, “To Amy …”

She stopped me right there. With wide eyes and open mouth, she asked, “How did you know how to spell my name?”

She was awed. You aren’t. You know the difference between the knowledge of a child and an adult. Can you imagine the difference between the wisdom of a human and the wisdom of God? What is impossible to us is like spelling “Amy” to him. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9).

I keep taking Molly to the car wash. She’s howling less. I don’t think she understands the machinery. She’s just learning to trust her master.

Maybe we’ll learn the same.

Question: How can we trust God at times when we are confused, frustrated, or just don’t understand where our life is taking us?

You can comment on this devotional online at:
http://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2009/09/16/ml_learning-to-trust/

********************************************************
Max Lucado
Used by permission
To learn more about Max Lucado visit his website at:
http://www.maxlucado.com/about/