You're not alone!

"Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing." --1 Thessalonians 5:11.

There are times in our lives when we feel the most alone even though we know that God is always there. Don't deny it. I know I'm not going to, but what's awesome about God is that He shows how much He loves us through the people that are in our lives: our brothers and sisters--the Body of Christ.

This is the crucial part of our relationship with Christ. Once we make the decision to accept that Christ is Savior and sincerely believe that God is the Creator of the universe, that is just the beginning. There are stumbling points along the way, and the great part is that we don't have to struggle alone "because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings" (1 Peter 5:9b). What an encouragement to have! Yesterday, today, and forever, there will be believers going through the same struggles that we are personally experiencing, and you can read yourself how the story ends. God wins!

We are created by God to be social beings, and by creating relationships with other believers, we build each other up:

"I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong--that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith" (Romans 1:11-12).

 No one person's walk with Christ is the same as another's. They're just as different as our gifts are that God has given us; however, we do not want to boast about the strengths that we have! Do not feed your ego by putting other people down. When they are weak, show them Christ and encourage them to make them strong, for "your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8b).

While looking for Scripture to suit this sort of topic, I was looking on Bible Gateway, in particular, for verses that had the words "encourage" and/or "companion" in them. What I found that was interesting was that Isaiah 41 came up for both:

"[T]hey help each other and say to their companions, 'Be strong!' The metalworker encourages the goldsmith and the one who smooths with the hammer spurs the one who strikes the anvil. One says of the welding, 'It is good.' The other nails down the idol so it will not topple" (Isaiah 41:6-7, emphasis added).

What is going on here? These people are making idols to worship! Alright, so people that turn their backs away from God also encourage each other, so how are we to show society that we are different from everyone else? We ought to act better than pagans do, but how? Matthew 5 helps a lot with the answer to this question. Let's break it down:

How do we stand out from the rest in regards to our relationships with people?

 "But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous" (vv. 44-45).

 Why should we love those who persecute us? They persecuted us!

"If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?" (vv. 46-47).

I don't want to be a tax collector or pagan. What do I do?

"Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (v. 48).

Let's encourage the Body! Let's love like Jesus and encourage the world!

God bless!

 

God's Plan vs. Our Plan

 Often times God’s plan is a lot different from what our plans are. We could spend days, weeks, months, and even years planning something, but if it is not what God wants, then we should definitely not do that thing. I feel as if many people struggle with why God sometimes says “no” to a certain prayer, desire, or dream. I know for me personally, when God says no, I get kind of upset, and even angry. But this should not be our response. Please remember that God only says “no” when He has something better in store for us.

It’s kind of like when you go on a vacation, and you plan out the whole entire trip: activities, entertainment, adventures, restaurants etc. But all of a sudden, one of your dear friends comes by, looks at your itinerary, and says “how about this instead..”. You are hesitant to hear them out, but you do anyways just because they are your friend. “How ‘bout you go do this activity.. go see this movie.. go hike this trail.. and go eat at this restaurant instead. You’ll really like it.” But you don’t like the sound of it.

Time goes on, and the vacation is near, when all of a sudden, things get messed up and you have to go do what your friend suggested. You’re not too happy about this, in fact you’re really upset because you don’t get to do what you wanted. And it’s really not the fact that you can’t do it that you’re upset, it’s just that you invested so much time into these specific things. But, you take your friend’s advice and it turns out you have a blast!! And you realize that it was SO much more fun than what you had originally planned.

This is what it’s like with God. Sometimes in life, we will plan and plan and plan something. We will invest so much into it only to have God tell us “no.” But please listen to Him longer, He doesn’t just say ‘no’, He says “no.. I think you will enjoy this even more. Why don’t you give this a try?” And if you do give it a try, I guarantee that you will like it even better. You might even have a blast!!

Please remember Romans 8:28, and declare it's truth in your life today!

(Was not posting Rom 8:28 my way of making you pull out your Bible?? idk :P haha)

Be blessed everyone!

Addictions

Throughout life, we come to turning points and have decisions to make, these innocent little things that come into our lives, and most of the time we accept these things as we figure it is only normal to do so. No matter what decision it is, innocent or not, sometimes these decisions--i.e. pornography, alcohol, drugs, cutting, food, shopping, greed, or money-- just take one look, one sip, or one instance in our life of choosing something bad; it slowly degrades our control to know when we need to stop.

Once these actions are being taken it is only a matter of time before it becomes an addiction, before it's a slow fade into rock bottom. Although; in Isaiah it talks about forgetting the past, and keep moving forward, towards a new foundation.

“Forget the former things;

    do not dwell on the past.

See, I am doing a new thing!

    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness

    and streams in the wasteland."

Isaiah 43:18-19

This new foundation is Christ, and a life for HIM; if we follow the words of Isaiah and see that the Lord is working a new path into your life, and all you have to do is to leave the past the past, and move onto something bigger, and brighter for your life.

Remember: no matter what addiction you have, whether you know it or not, it is an idol in your life, and having an idol in your life prevents you from having a relationship with God where your whole self is brought to His feet for His glory. He is the One who has the power to help overcoming addictions. With God, all things are possible.

I challenge you to pick one thing in your life, that you feel is iffy about whether it is wrong or not; it could be music, language, habits, actions, or even the people you talk to; find one thing that prevents your relationship with God from blossoming, and cut it off; get rid of it. When Christ called His disciples He didn't tell them; say goodbye to your family, He asked them to "Follow me" and they did; without question, without looking back so just please; I challenge you to take ONE THING, just one, and fast from it for good. 

How do we love? Why do we love?

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." --1 Corinthians 13:4-7.

One very sad truth that I have come to realize is how selfish of a nation we are. Scratch that: my eyes have opened to the truth of how selfish we are as a human race. I am guilty. I have been recently thinking about how I do things for people expecting them to do something similar for me in return: to make me feel as if my time given to them is worth my while, but is that what God calls us to do? Absolutely not! Paul says himself in his letter to the Corinthians that love "is not self-seeking," yet I am sure that people do things for others with selfish intentions all the time. Jesus also says in Luke 14:

"When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous" (vv. 12-14).

Let's look at the questions I posed initially: How do we love? We should love like God loves us, and God showed His love by sending Jesus to die on the cross. We can never repay Him for the sacrifice He made, but He did it anyway.

So wait, why do we love? We don't want to love for self-gain. When we accept Christ into our lives, we learn that the Holy Spirit is not only with us but within us, and the Holy Spirit is GOD! We are given the privilege to represent Christ in a sort of way that when we walk through the darkness, we are able to shine God's light through our actions, and our actions ought to be shaped by the love described in 1 Corinthians 13: the love that God shows to us every day!

Let us pray:

God, I want to love selflessly. I don't want to simply do things for others in order to get things in return. Help me to love like You love me. Father, break my heart for what breaks yours, and open my eyes to opportunities to reach out to the least of these. It's in Your Son's precious Name I pray these things. Amen.

God willing, tomorrow will come, "[a]nd now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor. 13:13).

God bless!

Evangelism Made Easy... (AKA Relational Evangelism) ;)

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." - Matthew 5:14-16

Ok, so I know that we all have probably heard this passage once or twice before; about Christ telling us how we are to act around everybody else in a way that is loving, caring, compassionate, and faithful; in a way that points others towards God.

Another verse that we also all probably know is Matthew 28:16-20 (AKA the "Great Commission"). In this passage, Jesus is now resurrected and telling His disciples to "go and make disciples of all nations." However, we are not really told "how" to do this. Now, the Church has taken many different steps and has had many different approaches on how to do this; whether it be by relating to others with common interests, speaking the Gospel to large audiences, sharing a Bible, etc. All of these achieve the same goal, to point others towards God.

But how often do we connect these two passages together? Perhaps Jesus, in Matthew 5, was giving us a very powerful, efficient, and even fun way to spread the Gospel... by and through relationships in our lives.

You don't have to go to a Bible college and get a degree to do this, you don't have to be trained, taught, or educated on the technicalities of it, and you don't have to travel half-way around the world to spread the Gospel and make another disciple.. You can do this right in your own community. All you have to do is love others! It's that simple! :).

So my personal challenge for you this week is to reach out to a friend/family member/co-worker who you haven't talked to in a while, or somebody you know that is down on their luck, and just love on them. Develop a relationship with them that is intentional, and that will show them that they are loved, not only by you, but by Christ as well. Point them to God by the way you act.

Shine bright, stay classy!!

Days of Devotionals; and Prayer Requests

Throughout the Summer and the upcoming school year, it has been decided that devotionals will be coming out Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays. God bless you all, and please if there are any prayer requests or anything along those lines, please let Tom, Darien, or Josiah know, any of us would love to be there for you, whether is be through: Facebook, e-mail, text, a phone call, whatever is best for you. Even if you want to help someway in a ministry, let us know because Living Proof is a Community, one that stands up for everyone, and helps in anyway we can.

Beauty and Humanity

"Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." - Psalm 139:16

In the beginning, before time began, God had a dream. This dream was a very, very beautiful thing. This dream was creative in every single aspect. This dream was worth so much to God, that God would invest thousands of years into nurturing it. Finally, when tensions rose, and this dream seemed to be at stake, the only option to assure the dream’s fulfillment was that He Himself had to die in order to keep it alive; and He did just that, He suffered a horrible, gruesome death on a cross. For those miserable 6 hours on that cross, He had that same dream in mind every single second of it, and soon, this dream would be the last thought that He had on His mind as He closed His eyes for the very last time. After this, He was buried in a dark, empty, lonely tomb. Now the Bible doesn’t say anything about what God was thinking while He was in the tomb, but I can imagine that, if God could have a ‘bad day’, it’d be during those three days while He was in the tomb. This broke His heart, because while God saw that sin had been paid for through this act of atonement, and that the dream was now possible, He also saw His dream failing to taking full effect. Those who closely followed Jesus were now weeping in bitter anguish because they thought this dream had turned into a nightmare. However, this dream was so desirable to God, that He couldn’t stand to be away from it for longer than a few days... so He rose from the dead just to enjoy His dream’s fulfillment. The dream was still alive! And ever since that pivotal day 2,000 years ago, God has intimately cared for, provided for, and defended this dream so that it could flourish and be brought to fruition. God loves this dream SO much!

So... this dream is both beautiful and creative. It is worthy, desirable, and enjoyable. And not only did this dream possess these wonderful qualities, it also existed in eternity, even before time began, even before you began! It is a wonderful thing. And if you haven’t figured out by now, I want to tell you, that YOU were in that dream! God always wanted a daughter, always wanted a son, always wanted a child just like you! You are beautiful, you are creative, you are worthy, you are desirable, you are enjoyable. And contrary to what the world may say, you are worth it, in every single way.

The Purpose of This Blog

The purpose for the Living Proof Blog is for devotionals, which will be put up by multiple people; not just topical devotions, or Bible studies, but passagal ones as well; when I say, "passagal" I mean, to dig into a passage of the Bible

- Josiah