August 8th: A Sense of Urgency

By Dennis Johnston

Scripture:

“So I urge you to imitate me.”   1 Corinthians 4:16

Observation:

Wow!  Paul tells others to imitate him!   A bold statement, however, Paul was a leader with an important character trait - credibility.  Paul had demonstrated by his actions how we as Christ-followers should live our lives.  Additionally, he sends Timothy in his place knowing that he would represent him and the Good News with confidence.

Application:

A great truth about being connected and growing in relationship with others is that I have them to help me live up to godly standards.  Today’s reading illustrates how Timothy was used to live as an example of a Christ-follower for others in his community.  His actions matched his beliefs - he had credibility just a Paul did.  He was able to live out what he was taught and what he believed. 

I love journeying through the Bible with each of you and experiencing life change together as we set an example for each other and those in our community.  Our actions lend so much credibility to our words (see 1 John 3:18).  It’s great to know that I’ve got others who are looking out for me, modeling good Christian conduct, and growing alongside me.  Ultimately, our lives can be lived in such a way that others will see Christ in us and He will be praised and acknowledged (see Matthew 5:16).

Prayer:

Father, it’s great to have other Christ-followers encouraging me and leading a life that is pleasing to you.  Lead me today as I live my life in with a sense of urgency and in such a way that others can see You by my actions.  In Jesus’ name.

August 7th: Work Together!

by Paul Lewis

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3:5b-8a

Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. I planted the seed in your hearts, Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow. The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose.

Observation:

Everyone plays a part in the salvation and growth of others. Ultimately, it is God who causes the growth, but he gives every one of us a job to do that contributes to the process. It doesn’t matter if you are a greeter or a preacher, or some role in between because we all have the same purpose.

Application:

God could certainly do it all himself, but he chooses to use us in the process. He wants us to work with him to accomplish his purposes. No matter where God has called you to serve, count it a privilege, knowing that you are a partner with God in the salvation and growth of others. How cool is that!

Prayer:

God, thank you for letting me be part of the process of life change. Help me to remember the responsibility of that, and also enjoy the fruit of that labor. Help me to see the importance of the role that others play in the process and help them to rejoice in the fruit that comes as we serve you together.

August 5th:God changes hearts

Scripture

Ezra 1:1-2

1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing:  2 “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:
” ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah.

Observation

God changed the heart of a foreign ruler to send his captives (the Israelites) back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.

Application

We all have someone in our life that we have been trying to speak to about Christ, who never seems to respond.  I rejoice in today’s passage that God, the creator and designer of the universe, takes the time to change the hearts of individual men and women in order to accomplish his purpose.  Keep praying for God to change hearts.

Prayer

God, thank you for loving us so much!

August 4th: Timing

By: Ryan Nunez

Scripture

Proverbs 20:21

An inheritance quickly gained at the beginning will not be blessed at the end.

Observation

Timing is a key factor when doing God’s will.  In this proverb, the timing has to do with being patient in gaining an inheritance.  We can all imagine a few bad scenes playing out in our imagination involving jumping the gun on receiving an inheritance.  The getting the inheritance is not bad…the issue is when.

Application

Timing has a lot to do with my obedience to God.  I can do the right thing, but if done at the wrong time or delayed, it could be just as bad as never obeying.

Prayer

God, help me to make your timing, my timing.

August 3rd: Your Next Right Step

By: Ryan

Scripture

2 Chronicles 34 (various verses)

3 During the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, Josiah began to seek the God of his ancestor David. Then in the twelfth year he began to purify Judah and Jerusalem, destroying all the pagan shrines, the Asherah poles, and the carved idols and cast images.

8 In the eighteenth year of his reign, after he had purified the land and the Temple, Josiah appointed Shaphan son of Azaliah, Maaseiah the governor of Jerusalem, and Joah son of Joahaz, the royal historian, to repair the Temple of the Lord his God.

14 While they were bringing out the money collected at the Lord’s Temple, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the Lord that was written by Moses. 15 Hilkiah said to Shaphan the court secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the Lord’s Temple!” Then Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan.

16 Shaphan took the scroll to the king and reported, “Your officials are doing everything they were assigned to do. 17 The money that was collected at the Temple of the Lord has been turned over to the supervisors and workmen.” 18 Shaphan also told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a scroll.” So Shaphan read it to the king.

19 When the king heard what was written in the Law, he tore his clothes in despair. 20 Then he gave these orders to Hilkiah, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah,^[c] Shaphan the court secretary, and Asaiah the king’s personal adviser: 21 “Go to the Temple and speak to the Lord for me and for all the remnant of Israel and Judah. Inquire about the words written in the scroll that has been found. For the Lord’s great anger has been poured out on us because our ancestors have not obeyed the word of the Lord. We have not been doing everything this scroll says we must do.”

29 Then the king summoned all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 30 And the king went up to the Temple of the Lord with all the people of Judah and Jerusalem, along with the priests and the Levites—all the people from the greatest to the least. There the king read to them the entire Book of the Covenant that had been found in the Lord’s Temple. 31 The king took his place of authority beside the pillar and renewed the covenant in the Lord’s presence. He pledged to obey the Lord by keeping all his commands, laws, and decrees with all his heart and soul. He promised to obey all the terms of the covenant that were written in the scroll. 32 And he required everyone in Jerusalem and the people of Benjamin to make a similar pledge. The people of Jerusalem did so, renewing their covenant with God, the God of their ancestors.

Observation

Josiah took over for his father Amon as King of Judah at the age of 8.  He father did what was evil in the sight of God and lead Israel into idol worship. Josiah, eventually leads Judah back to God, but not having an example of what was right took a series of right steps to bring him closer and to God’s plan.

Application

I was impacted this weekend, when Pastor Greg used the phrase; “your next right step.”  So often we get hung up looking too far into the future and become frozen in our decision making.  As we look at Josiah’s life, we see a series of “next right steps” being taken.  Each time he takes a right step…God reveals what the next step should be.

Prayer

God help me to follow you by taking the next right step.

August 2nd: First Place

Posted by: Jeremiah Hann

Scripture:

Manasseh even took a carved idol he had made and set it up in God’s Temple, the very place where God had told David and his son Solomon: “My name will be honored forever in this Temple and in Jerusalem–the city I have chosen from among all the tribes of Israel.  2 Chronicles 33:7

Observation:

Manasseh sets up this idol that he made and puts it in the place God was honored… That’s a Bold Move.

Application:

As much as I think, “wow, I can’t believe Manasseh could even do something like that,” I do the same thing.  Anytime I don’t give God first place in my life, I put an idol in the place where He is to be honored.  Now, I don’t build build a handmade idol, but do I always put God above everything?  Do I put my money before God, or do I give generously?  Do I give God my best time each day, or do I try to squeeze him in, if at all?  I need to not be like Manasseh at this point in his life, but follow his steps later when he turns to God.  I need to never put anything in front of God.  Nothing is more important than my relationship with him.

Prayer:

Hey God, Thanks so much for your Word.  I love being able to read it whenever I want.  Help me to always put you first.  I never want to put anything in your place.  You want, and deserve, to be first in my life.  Help me to always remember that.  In Jesus name, Amen.

August 1st: Firing on all cylinders…

By: Brent Hodges

Scripture

“We must not just please ourselves…For even Christ didn’t live to please himself.”  Romans 15:2-3

Observation

In his letter to the church in Rome, Paul writes some tough things.  Here he is not speaking about reaching out to non-believers, but living to please those within the church…fellow believers.  He goes on to say that when we all do our part within the body we can live in harmony and rejoice together knowing that we are reaching our full potential. 

Application

Passages like this can be uncomfortable because we are being asked to look beyond ourselves.  So often we want to make our relationship with Christ strictly personal…forgetting to love our neighbor as our self.  When we attend a church and allow everyone else to do the work and we simply show up to be fed, we’re sorely missing the point.  We can only reach our full potential when each and every believer who calls Palm Valley their home is working alongside one another to achieve the goal of reaching people in the West Valley for Christ! 

Prayer

Lord, continue to grow in me a bigger heart to serve You, and to serve those around me.  May I play my role in the body of Palm Valley Church.

July 31: Leading by Example

posted by: Darius Sanders

Scripture
Romans 14:13
So let’s stop condemning each other.  Decide to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall.

Observation
As followers of Christ, we’re called to live our lives in such a way as to set a good example for other Christians.  Anything that we say or do could draw another Christian closer to Christ or further away from Christ…especially new believers.  The last thing I want on my resume as I enter Heaven is “lived his life in such a way that many believers around him stumbled and fell away from Christ.” 

Application
Serving in Student Ministries, Romans 14:13 is a verse that echoes and reverberates with my soul.  Adult Youth Mentors and I are called to live our lives in such a way that students can follow our example.  We don’t want to do anything in life that would cause teenagers to walk away from God.  If anything, we want to live our lives so passionately for Christ that students are challenged by our actions to go to the next level in their Spiritual journey with Christ.  Realizing that my actions are a response from my heart’s condition, I need to continue to keep my heart in tune to what God is sharing with me daily as I read His Word.  That will enable me to display actions that will keep other believers from falling away from Christ.  

Prayer
God, please help me to continue living my life passionately following You.  I pray that students would forevermore see the example that I’m setting for them and that that example would inspire them to have a more intimate relationship with You.

July 29th: Evaluating Yourself

by Paul Lewis

Scripture: Romans 12:3b

Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.

Observation:

Paul precedes this sentence with pleading that we would give ourselves to God as a living sacrifice. In that sacrifice, we aren’t to think too highly of ourselves. In other words, we aren’t doing God a favor by giving ourselves to him, we are doing ourselves the favor. We aren’t special because we give our lives to Christ. We are all special in his eyes, but we need to remember that we are his creation, subject to him.

Paul fine tunes his point in this passage in saying that we need to be honest in our evaluation of ourselves. We need to realize who we are in Christ, who we are because of Christ, and who we were without Christ.

Our faith is to be the measure of our value. If we are just starting to believe, then our faith is small, but growing. Our value is that we are children of the one true living God regardless of how much faith we have. Our value then is founded in our understanding of our relationship with God. Some who are more mature find greater value, not in human terms, but in terms of faith. Our level of faith is never to be a yarstick to measure ourselves against others, but to be used in measuring our maturity level in Christ.

Application:

We are all at different maturity levels. I’m not talking about how long you have been a Christian, I am talking about steps taken to grow in your faith. Someone who has been a Christian for three years could be much more mature than someone who has been a Christian for forty years because they have continually focused on growing in Christ.

We are to be transformed by Christ and growing to become more like him every day.

Prayer:

God, please help me to focus on you today. Help me to grow in my faith. Help me to become more like you today. Help me to evaluate myself according to the faith you give me and strive to grow in that faith.

July 28th: It’s still a mystery to me

Scripture

Romans 11:25

“I want you to understand this mystery,…”

Observation

The mystery Paul is referring to is that the Israelites, despite their hard hearts, will receive a second chance at accepting the Good News after all the gentiles have has a chance to receive it.  This doesn’t quite make sense and Paul acknowledges that by referring to it as a mystery. The word mystery is often used in conjunction with God’s grace and salvation plan.

Application

There are a lot of things we won’t fully understand this side of heaven…and I mean a lot.  I am comforted that Paul uses the word mystery. If he didn’t quite get it all, I am going to be o.k.  I mean that is what faith is all about, right? Not fully understanding, yet trusting God enough to believe that He is right.  When I think of God’s mystery, I am not talking about fully understanding obscure prophecies and the correct interpretation of the book of Revelation.  Think about the Resurrection of Jesus.  How did that one event in history pay the penalty for sin for all time and conquer death?  Trust me I know the basic answer, Jesus was the perfect sacrifice, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin,…but why,….how?  It is a mystery, and I am quite content to place my trust in it.

Prayer

God, thank you for being too big to explain on the pages of a book.