One With Him

Pursuing Holiness 1 Thessalonians 5: 12-24 - We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.  Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. Reading this passage, you see that Paul is writing the Thess

What is Lacking? 1 Thessalonians 1:2-7 – “We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.  For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.  And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers…” I just started the book of Thessalonians the other day and they think the author of this book is Paul because of the writing style and theology. If this is Paul, then, I love the way he is so sincere with his brothers in Christ. The way he starts every letter to his friends, he greats them with much remembran

Holiness Leviticus 22:31-33 - “Therefore you shall keep My commandments, and perform them: I am the Lord. You shall not profane My holy name, but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel. I am the Lord who sanctifies you, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the Lord.” This verse really stuck out to me today in my devotionals. It reminded me that because I love the Lord with everything I am, I must be obedient to the laws which he has set before me. You see, it’s a choice. I can choose ignore all of the things that God has asked of Christians to do or I can choose to obey and be blessed in the end. That’s the way the world differentiates between Christ followers and the world. Christians devote their life to the words of God and the world choices to solely satisfy itself. One of the things the Holy Spirit put here is do not profane the Holy name. Anything that we do as publicly professed Christians can either bring honor and glory to God or it ca

Self-Control Galatians 5:22-23: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Sunday, for our group devotionals, we are all sharing about a fruit of the Spirit.  I was randomly selected to do a devo on the topic of self-control. Truth be told, I didn’t know what I was going to share about it, only because I thought it was pretty straight forward. But, the more I looked into it, the more God opened my eyes to see it in a whole new light. I was talking with my overseer about it and she said that self-control isn’t about simply giving something up for a short time but it’s putting it in the Lord’s hands and not expect to get it back. I have never thought about that before. Sometimes, the things what we are taking a break from are the things that are separating us from truly seeing Gods face. The definition of self-control is the discipline given by the Holy Spirit

No Longer Dismayed Joshua 1:9 – Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Lately, I have been feeling a little discouraged. I’m discouraged because I just feel so inadequate for this task the Lord has given me. I keep asking God, Why did you choose to send me here, I know I am supposed to be here be, but why?” How can I give them my all if I can’t even speak to them in Spanish? How can I impact the people here if I can’t get to know them or vice versa? But after asking God what seems like a thousand questions, He tells me, “Have I not commanded you? And that’s when he tells us in our time of need, “Be strong and courageous.” My need is Him. I need Him to surround me and tell me that everything is going to work out for the good of those who serve Him faithfully. Then he tells me, “Do not be afraid.” In other words He said, I got this! Stop trying to control it all on your

It Starts with You Leviticus 9:6-8 - Then Moses said, “This is what the LORD has commanded you to do, so that the glory of the LORD may appear to you.”  Moses said to Aaron, “Come to the altar and sacrifice your sin offering and your burnt offering and make atonement for yourself and the people; sacrifice the offering that is for the people and make atonement for them, as the LORD has commanded. So Aaron come to the altar and slaughtered the calf as a sin offering for himself.              Aaron and his sons have just finished up doing everything that that Lord had asked them to do. Everything come down to this moment. The last thing Aaron had to do was publically make offerings for Himself and then the people.  I was wondering to myself, why did he have to make a public display of his sacrifice? After thinking about it, I think God was trying to show Aaron how to be humble himself before the people. But also, to show them that he identify himself with them.  Just because him

November 14th, 2017 Atoning Sacrifice Leviticus 1:3-4 (NIV) - “‘if the offering is a burnt offering from the herd, you are to offer a male without defect. You must present it at the entrance to the tent of meeting so that it will be acceptable to the Lord.  You are to lay your hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on your behalf to make atonement for you.’” So I have started the book of Leviticus the other day and I can tell you that I, like others, have thought Leviticus was just a book about offering sacrifices, procedures and what not. But, the more I read this book the more I see what God is trying to convey through it for me. It all just kind of unfolds before me. One of the things that God laid upon my heart while beginning to first chapter was, everything they did had a spiritual significance behind it. I chose these two verses because they hold depth to them. You’re probably thinking, “This girl is crazy!” But wait, hear me out first (haha).

A Listening God  Psalms 5:1-3 - Listen to my words, Lord, consider my lament. Hear my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray. In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly. Lately, I have had a lot of things on my mind. Things that I have been worrying about and things that I have been trying to get under control for some time. This morning I was laying my heart out before God and I finally just gave it all to Jesus. I can tell you that after reading this, I know that God was comforting me and telling me that he hears my cry of distress.  Currently, I have been struggling with my breathing a lot. Besides from changing a few things in my diet, there isn’t much I can do.  I don’t want my breathing to affect my ministry or hold me back from playing with the kids the way I want to. I want to run with them and give them piggy back ride and so forth, but that’s really hard for me to do in this kind of weather out

He Will Zephaniah 3:17 – The Lord you God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take a great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing. This is a powerful verse. It is powerful to me because it starts with a promise. The Lord IS with me. It’s doesn’t say He is there sometimes, it’s a constant and everlasting promise that He will never leave me. He is there through it all.  I need to have trust that he will save me from myself and the physical and mental things that try to keep me back from fulfilling my purpose. It also a comfort to know that God takes great delight in me. I have no earthly idea why I am a delight unto the Lord but I am.  I am not worthy to take joy in, no earthly thing is. But, when we recognize that we are nothing, then which allows God to show us how much He can truly use us for. We are like pencil you see. We are useless unless we are picked up by the hand of a creator to put it into motion. The Creator finds

Home Bound Luke 15:20 – “So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. So if you read the title you might be thinking, what does that have to do with this verse? Well, I’m going to tell you. This is part of the parable of the prodigal son. Jesus is telling the people about a son who left home and ran to the world to find satisfaction and fill selfish desire, but he quickly learned what the world will really do for you. It ruined him. To the point of leaving him with nothingness and brokenness. But it was though that state of brokenness that cause him to return home to his father. I can only imagine him walking home and mentally planning out everything he would say to his father. “Father, I messed up,” no… no… “Dad, I’m so sorry” “Father, I will work for you, if you allow me to come home.” The walk for him probably felt like it was

Importance of Prayer Matthew 26:41 – Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give into temptation. For the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. This verse was the verse for the Costa Rica Kids Club this week, and I really like the comfort/exhortation it gives me. As Christ followers we need to keep watch and pray. I for one have been slacking in that area all my life. But, thankfully the past 3 months I have learned the importance of prayer and how it is powerful and might tool to defeat the enemy. Most importantly though, it allows me to talk to my God, my Friend. That’s why it says keep watch, to be careful for when the devil tempts you. He likes to tempt us with our weak flesh because if we are not praying then we are not on guard. Our defenses are feeble and frail when we don’t keep continually go to God for our strength and edification. Here is says that the spirit is willing. It’s willing to build us up and to strengthen our faith but our flesh is weak. It doesn’t wa

Being a Servant 5 Proverbs 12:1 – Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid. This is another straight forward verse that I don’t honestly really need to interpretation. It’s so one of those do or die kind of verses, you know? Any who, those who are willing to be corrected and open for exhortation are an assets to the team.  In comparison, those who completely reject correction and get mad about it, are the definition of a liability. And are known here as, “stupid.” Now for the question we all need to ask ourselves, are you an asset or a liability? I got this question presented to me a couple of weeks back. And it has help form and shape the way I look at even the tiniest of tasks. It is a choice. You choose if you want to be the person who lifts others up and be a burden to them. Another way of looking at it is, are you going to be the person who gives oxygen or be the person who sucks the oxygen out of others. I say these things because I

Being a Student 4 2 Timothy 2:2 – And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these faithful men who will be able to teach others also. I think the theme that I am getting from this verse is one of being sent out to disciple others now. Timothy is writing the people encouraging them to follow the example that Jesus has set before them. And even to this day, this is an exhortation to us. Today we are being trained up so we can be sent out. We are looking upon our God appointed authorities as an example of what we need to be like. Then after we have gleaned and been taught by them, you and I are going to be sent out to train up others around me. Again, be trained up to be sent out! Like Jesus did to the leper who he healed. The man gleaned from Jesus, but then Jesus told him to go out and share with others. I think this verse really one that describes what IGNITE has been for me. I am being trained up by being poured into by many pastors and great leade

Being a Student 3 Proverbs 9:9 – Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; Teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. So over the last three months, this has kind of been the theme. We are being poured into with the words of the bible and the words of wise men. They are teaching us to be wiser and increase our knowledge. They train us up so we can be sent out and teach others. But it all starts with learning. You have to be adaptable for anything and flexible in the process of growing. It can be hard to learn new things and also apply them but it’s all worth it. Honestly, us as a general, try to over complicate this verse. There’s no underlying meaning, it’s in plain black and white. Wise men are teachable and are not above reproach. They are susceptible and willing to be taught. This verse is something that the IGNITE school follows very well. In the training phase, which I can proudly say I have completed, we sit in the class room for probably 8 hour

Being a Student 2 Luke 2:46 – Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking questions. Like the last blog I did, this has a lot of the same concepts. First we must go to a place where we can seek Him. Then we have to sit and be at the feet of Jesus. We have to be willing to listen before we ask questions. Sometimes it’s hard to just sit and listen. It takes a lot of self-discipline to be silent before the Lord. That’s personally a really hard thing for me. I like to go, keep my hands and myself busy. Don’t get me wrong here, being busy isn’t a bad thing! But, if we are prioritizing it over sitting at Jesus’ feet and gleaning from Him, then we need to reevaluate ourselves. All God simply asks of us is to follow Him. “Do we know the God we claim to follow? And do we follow the God we claim to know?” - Keith Wheeler.  To follow God, we have to know God.  And, how do we know God? By listening/s

Being a Student 1 Mark 4:10-11 – But when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable. And He said to them, “to you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables. Here we see many things happening. I see that the Lord teaches, the student ask, and the Lord brings some understanding. The one of the few things that really sticks out to me in this scripture, is when it says, “those around Him.” The people and disciples were around Jesus. They were listening, attentive and ready to be poured into. It so important to just be around in ministry. I remember my overseer telling me an illustration of this. He said that it doesn’t matter how long you had worked with Him, if a new guy comes in and is around and available, unlike you, he would choose the guy to receive the benefits. Why? Because, he wants the guy who is going to work the hardest and who is looking for the work.  The next

Discipline 5 1 Timothy 4:7 – But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. I firmly believe, now more than ever, that the Lord is going to come back soon. If you take a look at what’s going on in this world, all the natural disasters, attacks breaking out, political conflicts, biblical prophesies coming to pass and so on. It’s seriously getting more and more corrupted in this world. That should scare us into taking every opportunity to spread the love and gospel to as many people as possible.  Friends, listen to me, you don’t want to be the reason why one person doesn’t hear what Jesus did for them. You never know if that day is their last day on this earth. I urge you to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. Ask Him to fill you afresh today and to bring divine appointments. I don’t want to be the reason why one person goes to hell because I was to scare to be bold. For God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound min

Discipline 4 2 Samuel 11:11-13 – And Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and the lord Joab and servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go to my house and eat, drink and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.” Then David said to Uriah, “Wait here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. Now then David called for Him, he ate and drank before him; and he made him drunk. And at the evening he went to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house. When I am reading this, I put myself in Uriah’s position. He gets called home randomly by the king and so now, David is telling him to go home to his wife and rest. If I were Uriah, I would have thought something sketchy was going on. But in the midst of this small sections, you can really tell the heart of Uriah. He is a man of loyalty an

Discipline 3 Mark 1:35 – Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. When I read this a question comes to mind, why does Jesus rise early to pray? Was is for the purpose of just the quietness in the morning, when no one else was awake? Or what? After asking around, I came to the conclusion that we need to get in the routine of starting off our day in the Lord’s presence. And, we do that by praying and being in the word. Jesus set the ultimate example before us. Waking up early takes discipline though. If you think about it, Jesus was a busy guy. He traveled everywhere and was constantly surrounded by people. So if we think that we are too tired to wake up in the morning, that wasn’t an excuse for Jesus, so it shouldn’t be an excuse for you are me either. Lately, waking up early has been super hard for me. I feel like I have been constantly going and running on ‘E’, if you know what I mean. Our

Discipline 2 1 Corinthians 9:24 -27 – Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one received the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. This is a really cool verse for me. It’s a really good reminder of what we are running for. We are running for our crown of glory that the Father bestows upon us. We don’t run for this world. We don’t run for the air here. It’s crazy. It’s through discipline that we obtain the prize. Think of it through the analogy of a cross country race. You have to prepare for the race by training. Training takes a lot of time, effort, and preparation. You know what they say, training takes a lot of blood, sweat

Discipline 1 1 Timothy 4:8 – For bodily exercises profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that is now and of which is to come. Physical works will only get you so far. But the works done inside you, through the Spirit, will not only help in the physical world but also gain you the kingdom of heaven. The bible talks a lot about how works can’t get you to heaven. It’s through Jesus that we have the promise of everlasting life. So we can do all we want to here on earth but that will hardly put a dent in our earning us eternal life. It’s our relationship with God the Father that we will be the ambassadors of his kingdom. Don’t get me wrong here though, Jesus exhorted us to do the work of God here on earth. He asked us to go and make disciples. And serve others in the process. But, all those things mean nothing if God isn’t a part of it. Jesus Himself come to this world not to be served but to serve. He did it though His Father who stren

                                 Sacrifice 5 Philippians 3:12-13 – Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. Sometimes we forget how much we are really holding onto. Whether it is from our past or if it’s a sin that is/has entangled us, those things can make it hard to move forward. But we have to remember that Christ has already defeated the grave. And, it’s though that that we become the overcomer by the power that lives within us. It’s through that power from the Holy Spirit that are able to leave the past behind us and take a step forward in our new life though Him. And I know I keep putting the word ‘through’ in there a lot. It’s sounding super repetitive. BUT, it’s only THROUGH Christ that we prevail.

Sacrifice 4 Philippians 3:11 – if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. One thing that really sticks out here in this verse was the part that says, “By any means.” By any means, I shall attain Christ. It’s very challenging statement. Makes me think of how far I would go to achieve true salvation. You know? By Jesus dying on the cross, the prize he had to pay in order for me to live in the light was crazy. Since He did that for me, how far will I go to achieve the ‘by any means’ standard. If I am honest, I would love to say that I would give it all at any cost but that would be a lie. It’s hard for me to give a measly little French fry away, much less my life away. As human nature, we believe that we are entitled to things. And it defiantly goes against everything in our nature to surrender our rights away. But that’s what God calls us to do. He calls us to follow the example of what He has been set before us. And that’s hard. But by any means, through Ch

Sacrifice 3 Philippians 3:10 – that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death This has been my prayer all along here in Ignite. That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection. I want to know God. Actually know Him. I want to know God in every way you could possibly imagine. There is this verse in the bible that say something along the lines of knowing where to go just by the direction of His eyes. I want to know where to go just by the direction the Lord look and he doesn’t even need to say anything for me to understand. I want to know the power of His resurrection. My miniscule mind can barely comprehend even a fraction of what Jesus did for me on the cross. But all of these are just words, I can want something all day, but in reality it’s the action you take that will allow you to get the prize. I NEED to constantly be in fellowship with Him. I need to understand that I am nothing and He is everyth

Sacrifice 2 Philippians 3:9 – and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is of faith through Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; When I read this the first thing that came to my mind was, we are only found in Him. We only have righteousness because of the free gift God has given us. God enables us to have faith. Faith apart from Him is meaningless. So often times we can faith in other things or people. Like a boyfriend, or family. We can run to our social media, pleasures of the world, money, and basically anything that you can put your faith in other than Christ. My point in saying all of this, is that so often times we miss the point. We miss that it’s only through and by Christ that we can be satisfied. The world has nothing to offer us. But, the good Father has called us to righteousness. All He asks for us in return, is to have faith and know that He provides everything that we need. Don’t be afraid to step ou

Sacrifice 1 Philippians 3:8 - Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them rubbish that I might gain Christ. This is a very challenging verse for me. Why? Because it challenges me to not put things before the Lord. When Paul says “ I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord,” To me that implies that I need remember that God is in control of every situation, whether good or bad. He continues on by saying basically that he won’t allow the things which he has lost to hinder his race. He will be willing say, that if he has to lose everything, then so be it. As long as in the end, he gains Christ. How many of us can say that about our own life? How many of us can say that we would be willing to give up/lose your house, family, job, and etc.? I can tell you that being here in the Ignite program, I have had to give up a l

Servant 4 John 15:15 – No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. I think it’s cool that this verse tells us that we have a direct connection with the Father. I am also in love with the fact that the Lord calls us His friend. That’s just so personal and enduring. I am so unworthy to even be on this world much less be called a friend. What’s even crazier is that He says He makes Himself known to us. He uses the Holy Spirit to communicate to our beings. When I think of things being made known to me, I think of God revealing His character to us. He revels what he is feeling, words of wisdom, what he’s passionate about and what not. The day my classmates climbed the volcano ‘Agua,’ and I stayed home. And I was quite sad about it honestly, I really wanted to go but the Lord held me back. Looking back on it now, I realize that He wanted me to

Servant 3 Matthew 20:26-28 – Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and give Him life a ransom for many.  I can’t tell you how much I love this passage. I remember watching this show and it had the illustration of a dirty kid sitting all the way at the end of a seemingly endless table. But, the boy sitting there, hears the Lord called Him to sit at the right hand seat next to Him. Thinking about that, as long as we are on this earth, we are going to be at the very end of the table. Not in the way that we are far from God, but as the means of we are going to be putting others before ourselves. We are going to be serving them because that’s what the Father asks of us. The Lord came to this world not to be served, even though He rightfully deserves it, but to serve others. How good is our

Servant 3 Matthew 20:26-28 – Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and give Him life a ransom for many.  I can’t tell you how much I love this passage. I remember watching this show and it had the illustration of a dirty kid sitting all the way at the end of a seemingly endless table. But, the boy sitting there, hears the Lord called Him to sit at the right hand seat next to Him. Thinking about that, as long as we are on this earth, we are going to be at the very end of the table. Not in the way that we are far from God, but as the means of we are going to be putting others before ourselves. We are going to be serving them because that’s what the Father asks of us. The Lord came to this world not to be served, even though He rightfully deserves it, but to serve others. How good is our

Servant 2 Luke 17:7-10 – Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare me supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after hat you may eat and drink’? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to so, should say, ‘we are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty’.” This was a very interesting verse to think about. I was kind of confused at first but when you think about it, it makes sense. I think it’s talking about we are so unworthy. We are unworthy of even being known as a servant of God. I keep going back to the phrase that, God doesn’t need us to accomplish His good deeds, but yet He chooses to use us anyways. And when He does use us, how often do we expect God to tell us thank you. All the time right? Reality check, we are

Servant 1 John 12:26 – If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, My Father will honor. I once heard someone say that it’s important to always be around. And by around, I mean looking for ways to serve, and being around when someone needs you to help them. Jesus’ is making an important point here. He’s saying we are to follow Christ. Follow Him. How do we do that? Well with a lot of prayer, devotionals, a whole lot of Him, and whole lot less of you. Remember to be sensitive to the Spirit because the Spirit will lead us closer to the Lord and His will. Anyone who denies self and follows Jesus, will be made righteous by the Father in heaven. For the last couple of years, being in the Lord’s will was something I prayed regularly about. And to this day, it still is. I’m not going to lie, it’s hard to follow the Lord. It’s hard to deny self. These things here are directly oppose my flesh. My flesh is weak, prideful, vai

Adaptability 5 1 Corinthians 12:14-15 – For in fact the body is not one members but many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? The family of Christ is very unique. God did not make any one of us the same. No not one. We all have different skills, trades and spiritual gifts that the Lord had bestowed upon us. When you think about it, it’s cool how God worked all of it out. You see, certain individuals could be really good at teaching, or for some encouraging, prophesy, making others laugh, serving, working with their hands and etc.  We all have something exceptional to bring to the table. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what skill set you have, it only matters if we are all using our gifts to glorify our Lord Jesus Christ. I thinks it’s funny to imagine what the world would be like if everyone had the same personality and characteristics. This world would be a very dull and boring place. But the real

Adaptability 4 Romans 15:1 – We who are strong must be considerate of those who are sensitive about things like this. We must not just please ourselves. To me this verse is saying to not cause others to stumble in their convictions. For example, say a friend is being convicted by the Holy Spirit to stop listening to secular music. But you on the other hand, don’t have the same conviction about it and feel like you can listen to it without a problem. If you are aware your friends conviction and start to listen to secular music in front of them. That would totally be going against the Lord by causing the friend to stumble in their walk. The bible calls us to bear one another’s burdens not add to it.  Don’t be selfish in yourself, be considerate for the things others are trying to work through and work out of their life. God calls us to life up the hands of our brothers and encourage them in their time of long or short term fasting. I am called to selflessness. To lay down my right

Adaptability 3 Galatians 5:13 – For you, brethren,  have been called to liberty; only not to use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. I can’t tell you how much love this verse. The Lord has His hand of freedom stretched out to us. He calls us to take the His hand and break our chains. When we realize that we don’t deserve His grace is when He deems us worthy of our inheritance. God says that even though we have liberty through Him, that doesn’t mean we can feely live in sin just because we know that God will save us in the end. That’s like standing in between the state line and being in two places at once. It doesn’t work, eventual you will have to choose which side you will want to walk too. It’s not the best of both worlds here. We are supposed to channel our freedom and us it to free others. A phrase I head not too long ago was, “Free people, free people.” That’s so true! Our freedom in Christ can be used lead others to freedom. What do

Adaptability 2 1 Corinthians 9:22&23 – to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be a partaker of it with you. This verse is a very personal one to me. This verse is so important for ministry it’s not even funny. As Christ followers, we are called to lay aside ourselves and step into others shoes in order to win souls. Now you might be ask yourself, “Why would God tell us to become like in others to win them over?” Well the answers simple, it all about relatability. People want people who they can relate with. Whether they admit it or not, the modern society want someone to be considerate and relatable with them. Love and compassion need to be a key component to your adaptability. Like, Jesus came down in the likeness of us to be relatable with us. He then built up a relationship with His disciples and connected with them. Then He poured in

Adaptability 1 Ephesians 5:21 - Submitting to one another in the fear of God. If we are living a life of healthy respect for the Lord, then we need to live with a mutual respect for others. This may sound confusing, but it makes sense when you think about it. I think this is a very important verse. I believe that this is a verse applicable verse. A respect for God gives you a respect and love for His people. Especial for those who are around you. It’s important because that’s what ministry is, it’s loving those we are around you and being sensitive to one another. This is especially important to me sense I’m going to my mission field with one other person for 6 months. We need to submit to Christ first and for most, and rely on Him. But also, as sisters in Christ, we need to rely on each other and I need to put my field partner needs before my own personal needs. We need to follow Jesus’ example. He looked to His Father first and then He put his people’s needs before His own nee