Pursuit22

Monday, March 25, 2013

Week 9: Reading the Story

This is the week we celebrate. We celebrate Christ’s willingness to come. We celebrate His willingness to die. We celebrate the blood He shed. We celebrate the veil He tore. We celebrate the sacrifice. We celebrate the forgiveness. We celebrate the tomb. We celebrate that He didn’t stay there. We celebrate the resurrection. We celebrate the hope of the future. We celebrate the commission. We celebrate JESUS!
For all He is, all He’s done, and all He continues to do.

Join me this week in reading the story.

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~Day 1~
The Capture

Read Matthew 26.47-68 & 27.1-2.

- Today I want you to simply read. No questions. Just do your best over the next few days to think about the setting, the emotion, the reality of this story of Christ.

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~Day 2~
The Charge

Read Matthew 27.11-26.

- It is so easy to sit and think about those crying “CRUCIFY HIM!” and think how ridiculous. How often do you try to “kill” Jesus in your life when He calls you to give up something? Or step out on faith? These “religious” people didn’t want anything to do with Jesus because He messed up the way they wanted to live. He changed everything! When you accept Jesus… when you truly follow Jesus… He will change everything!

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~Day 3~
The Crucifixion

Read Matthew 27.27-56.

- Take some time to think on all Christ went through to be your sacrifice. I encourage you to write out a prayer to Jesus thanking Him for all He did for you on the cross.

- Do you realize the importance of the veil of being torn?! In your Bible it may be said as the curtain of the temple. In Jesus’ ripping the curtain it symbolized that through His sacrifice we are able to go straight to the presence of God in prayer. We don’t have to go through a priest. We don’t have to go to the temple. We can go straight to God. Thank Him for that.

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~Day 4~
CHRIST Revealed!

Read Matthew 27.57-28.10.

- Reread v. 28.9… The best way we can THANK Jesus is to WORSHIP Jesus. I’m not just talking about worship through song. Worship through your life! In what ways do you worship Jesus with your life now? What ways could you worship Him more?

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~Day 5~
The Commission

Read Matthew 28.11-20.

- I first want you to look at how the “religious” leaders responded. They lied… The truth is when we see truth but don’t accept it …when we say we believe in Christ but don’t get saved… we are lying. We are with our lives saying that Jesus isn’t all He says He is.

- But what do we, followers of Christ, do to respond? What is His command for us? Reread Matthew 28.19-20. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you!”….. see that first word GO! GO make disciples!! For you this may mean GO to a different lunch table, talk to someone out of your friend group, share the Gospel with your family, go on a missions trip, talk to a total stranger. I don’t know how or where God is leading you to GO… but the appropriate response to what Christ did for us is to GO!

I would love to hear what God’s doing in your life! I would love to pray for you about how God’s calling you to GO. Please email, comment, or message me to share!

What are your thoughts? I want feedback. Feel free to send me any question responses. I would love to hear from you, answer any questions you have, and pray for your needs specifically. Feel free to share this, comment, email me at brandycaudill90@gmail.com, or facebook message me!

Monday, March 18, 2013

Week 8: The Simple Truth…

This week is the Gospel, the message of salvation, the SIMPLE TRUTH! No matter where we are in our walk with Christ (considering Christ, beginning a walk, or maturing more and more) it is always beneficial to remember the Gospel! If you are reading this and you have never accepted Christ’s sacrifice for your sins, this is a great way to reflect on the simple truths of the salvation message. For those of you reading this who are followers of Christ, use this in 2 ways…. 1. To remind yourself of God’s grace and mercy so you can be renewed in thankfulness. 2. To better learn how to share the Gospel with those around you!

Memory Verse
{John 3.17 – “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.”}

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~Day 1~
The Problem

Read Romans 3.23.

The problem is this…… we can NEVER be “good enough” for God. I feel like that word “ALL” keeps coming up in our conversations. It says “all have sinned.” Because we are humans, because we are descendants from Adam and Eve, we are incapable of living a sinless life. But what about those who do many good deeds????

Read Isaiah 64.6.

Scripture is clear that out “good deeds” and our efforts to be righteous on our own are like “filthy rags.” We all need God to give us righteousness… HIS righteousness! There is no other way we can be good enough. We can’t live a pretty peaceful life or be known as a “good person” and this get us to Heaven. There is only one Solution….. we will get to that later this week.

- Think on the statement “I’m not good enough to enter Heaven.” If you’ve been saved spend time thanking God for giving you His righteousness. If you’re not saved ask yourself if you’ve believed the lie that you could be good enough.

- When you think about, talk about, and live for Jesus, do you have the mentality that you are good enough? Or as you share truth and live out the Gospel do you constantly remember and express that Jesus’ righteousness is what saves you?

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~Day 2~
The Consequence

In life when we mess up or don’t measure up there is always a CONSEQUENCE. Some people like to miss this part of the Gospel. It’s not fun or easy to think about the consequences of our sins without Jesus…. But it’s necessary.

Take a look at Romans 6.23

Today we are just going to look at the first part of the verse…. “the wages of sin is death.” So what kind of death are we discussing here? It’s not talking about our physical death.

Read 2 Thessalonians 1.8.

The death that is being discussed as the consequence is separation from God…. What a heart wrenching thought. The truly awesome part though is that God doesn’t leave us drowning our consequence without help. This is what we will discuss tomorrow!

- Have you ever considered the consequence for someone who doesn’t accept Jesus? Do you constantly remind yourself that there is a Heaven and a Hell and people will go to one or the other?

- As you think about this consequence I want you to apply it to your life. 1^st if you are not saved, what are you waiting for? Do you realize that this is your consequence if you do not accept God’s free gift of salvation? 2^nd Christian, do you have an urgency and a passion to share the Gospel with everyone knowing that if they die without Jesus this would be their consequence? Should you?

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~Day 3~
The Intervention

PRAISE GOD that there is an intervention. “Intervene” means to interfere with the outcome. I’m so thankful that God chose to intervene.

Read Colossians 2.13-14.

ESV reads that He “cancelled the record of debt that stood against us” and “this He set aside, nailing it to the cross.” WOW! JESUS came to earth (fully God, fully human) and was tempted, and beat, and eventually killed on a cross so that He could be our salvation. So that He could take our debt! I think I will live the rest of my life on Earth and never get over that!

Some of you may wonder how this helped. Why did Jesus have to die on a cross to save us? First of all He died a physical death and rose again three days later because in that He defeated physical death. He also defeated Spiritual death (separation from God). See in the Old Testament, before Jesus’ sacrifice, the way the people of God would receive forgiveness is to sacrifice an animal. The blood of that animal would be their offering to God so that through that blood they would be forgiven. However it was something that the people had to do over and over, because the sacrifice wasn’t enough just once.

Read Hebrews 9.13-14.

Jesus is the perfect sacrifice because He never sinned! He was without “blemish.” There was nothing wrong with Him. Because of His sacrifice, we are saved from all our sins by accepting His blood as our sacrifice.

- Spend some time thanking Jesus for His perfect blood that covers all your sins!

- Remembering Jesus’ sacrifice, take a moment to imagine what your life would be like without that.

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~Day 4~
The Motivation

BUT WHY? Why would a perfect God, who holds the entire world, send His Son (His only Son) to die for us? And why would Jesus agree to it? WHY?

Read Ephesians 2.1-5.

Take another good look at verse 4…. “BUT GOD being rich in mercy, because of the GREAT LOVE with which HE LOVED US.” That is some kind of love! He was rich in mercy, full of grace, showing forgiveness because He loves us that much! I cannot wrap my head around this.

Read Romans 5.8.

God didn’t wait until we, as humans, got our acts together. He doesn’t say you can receive my forgiveness after you’ve spent three weeks without sinning. He died for us WHILE WE WERE STILL SINNERS. He saves us although WE ARE STILL SINNERS. Why……????? Because He loves us! In a way I will never understand. In an unconditional, unending, unthreatened kind of way.

- Think about that God loves you that much! Do something today (journal a prayer, tell a friend, set aside extra time) to thank God for loving you that much!

- Do you share this love with others? Or do you keep it bottled up inside afraid to show the world?

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~Day 5~
The Resolution

So what now? You know all these this. You know that without Jesus you are a sinner not worthy of God. You know that those who never accept Christ pass up a free offer and are sentenced to the consequence of Hell. You know that God sent an intervention in the form of Jesus dying on the cross to save you from that consequence. And you’ve learned that He did this because He loves you. So how to you respond? It’s simple really.

Read Romans 10.9-11.

You have to ADMIT you are a sinner who needs God to be anything at all.
BELIEVE that Jesus came to die for your sins and saves you through His perfect sacrifice and that He also rose from the dead on the third day.
Lastly CONFESS with your mouth and your life the JESUS IS LORD! That HE is your GOD who saved you!

I know it almost sounds too simple. And maybe you’re wondering if it only works for certain people.

Read Romans 10.13

EVERYONE who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved! EVERYONE! Praise GOD!

- Have you ever truly accepted Christ as the Lord of your life and salvation from your sin?

- If not, what is holding you back? What are you scared of?

- If so, are you sharing the Gospel? I encourage you to use this week’s devotional as a guide to help you share the Gospel with those you encounter.

IF you have never accepted Christ, please please contact me! I would love to talk with you, answer questions, pray for you and with you! Don’t hold off! This is one decision you will never ever regret! You will never ever want to change! It will be the best decision you ever make!

Monday, March 4, 2013

Week 7: Psalms…

This is week is I am starting something new with Pursuit 22. Occasionally we will have a “Psalm week.” The post will have 5 daily readings for you with questions to reflect on! I really encourage you to pull out your BIBLE and search for all that God has to say through these. There are three questions I want you to ask yourself after every Psalm (in addition to the ones I post). 1. What does this say about me/humans? 2. What does this passage say about God? How can I apply it to my life? Hope you enjoy the first!

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~Day 1~
Psalm 27

Read Psalm 27.

- Looking at v. 1… Who or what do you fear? When you put in perspective that God is your LIGHT, SALVATION, and REFUGE... is it still something you should be fearful of?

- Reread v. 4 and 8… Do you seek to be in the Lord’s presence and in the Lord’s will on a daily basis?

- Look at v. 10… Think of the people that you love the most. Have they let you down or disappointed you? If they haven’t yet, they will at some point. Why? Because they’re humans! Isn’t it comforting to know our God will always take us in?

- Reread v. 11… How often do you ask God to teach you His ways?

- V. 14…. This is my FAVORITE verse in this passage! I highly encourage you to memorize this simple verse and let it speak into your life! Think of situations in your life right now that you need to “wait in the Lord” on. Maybe you need to wait up on Him for healing, a situation, direction, peace, help with overcoming a particular sin, a friendship, or simply just learning to wait upon Him in general. Make a list of these situations. Some translations say “take heart” this means to be confident or courageous. So as you wait up on the Lord in these situations be confident that God has a plan and will come through for you and be courageous to continue in His plans for you.

- Don’t forget to answer the three questions from the introduction.

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~Day 2~
Psalm 34

Read Psalm 34.

- V. 1… is the praise of the Lord continually on your lips? In other words are you constantly praising Jesus?

- V. 5… think about this… my translation says “those who look to Him are radiant.” Who doesn’t want to be radiant? When we look to Christ we will be radiant!

- Reread v. 8… in what ways have you tasted and seen that the Lord is good? Make a list of ways He’s blessed you and realize His goodness!

- Read 9 and 10… In what ways do those who fear the Lord lack nothing?

- V. 14… We will talk more about this in the weeks to come, but do you seek peace? And pursue it? What does it mean to you to seek peace?

- Don’t forget to answer the three questions from the introduction.

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~Day 3~
Psalm 51

Read Psalm 51.

- Verses 1-2… ask God to show you sin your life that you need to be cleansed of… don’t just think “big sins” (although sin is sin in God’s eyes). Maybe this is an attitude or jealousy or bitterness or pride or selfishness. Keep that/those sins in mind as we continue in this passage.

- V. 4… every sin we commit is against God… when you are hateful to your family, you are sinning against God… does sin bother you because it bothers God?

- V. 10… also one of my favorites to memorize. Ask God to create in you a clean heart! Think about what that would look like.

- Don’t forget to answer the three questions from the introduction.

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~Day 4~
Psalm 103

Read 103.

- Reread 1-5… do you bless the Lord with everything you have? Use v2-5 to make a list of reasons we should. (ex. From vs 3: He forgives our imperfections.)

- V.8… are you slow to anger?

- Reread 10-13… Aren’t you glad that He doesn’t deal with us as we deserve? What sins have you committed this week that you are thankful He casts as far as the east is from the west?

- V. 14-17… Take a moment to remember how short and fragile your life really is. But God… He is everlasting!

- Don’t forget to answer the three questions from the introduction.

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~Day 5~
Psalm 139

Read Psalm 139.

- Read v1-7 again… WOW! Isn’t it crazy that God knows us that well? Which of these verses amazes you most?

- V. 13-14… think of your body! Think of how every little thing has to be perfect for you to function! God made YOU!!!! Crazy huh? Do you praise Him because you are fearfully and wonderfully made?

- V. 16… Does is blow your mind to think that God had a purpose for how you would spend your days … before you were even born!?

- Pray v. 23-24… Ask the Lord to search you and let you know of any sins you should repent of. And ask Him to lead you in His right direction!

- Don’t forget to answer the three questions from the introduction.

I pray you’ve enjoyed your first week Psalms!

Monday, February 25, 2013

Week 6: T·R·U·S·T

Memory Verse
{Psalm 25.2a – “O my God, in YOU I trust.”}

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~Day 1~
Who Better?

Read Psalm 18.30-31.

There is only one God… He is our only ROCK! And did you get the first part?....... His way is PERFECT! Who better to trust than God with PERFECT ways?

Read Psalm 20.7-8 and Psalm 118.8.

Is there anything that you can put you trust in over God? NO! It doesn’t matter how great someone is or how much they love you. It doesn’t matter steady and solid someone seems…. A human will at some point let you down, disappoint you, fail you. But God? He never will!!!

Read Psalm 73.25.

Once we trust God, we realize that we have no other desires apart from Him. He fills us up! What can we want in Heaven or earth more than God?

- Do you trust anyone in your life more than you trust God? Be honest with yourself. How can you change this?

- Reread Psalm 73.25. Could you write this statement out and it be true of yourself? Do you desire Him and His Will and His presence more than anything else in life?

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~Day 2~
Best How?

Some of you may wonder… “How can He be the BEST for me to trust? I can’t even see Him!”

Take a look at Isaiah 45.12 and Psalm 100.3.

He’s our CREATOR! You can put our trust in Him because not only did He create the world… but He created YOU! He designed YOU! He knows YOU…. Even better than you know yourself. But it gets even better….

Read Psalm 40.4.

Not only is He the best to trust because He is our Creator, but we are also promised that we are blessed when we trust in the Lord! Blessed how?

Read Jeremiah 17.7-8.

We will be planted by the water, not fearing anything, always bearing fruit!

- Spend some time thinking about the fact that God created You…. He made you. He has a specific purpose for you. You didn’t happen by accident. You weren’t some random chance. You were designed with a purpose. Now do you want to trust Him?

- Do you feel like the verses in Jeremiah 17 (read them again) describe you? Do you feel like tree planted beside the river that never stops bearing the fruit of Jesus? Do you want it to describe you?

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~Day 3~
“Who Me?”

This past weekend the youth group from my church went on a retreat…. A skiing retreat. I decided to go simply to hang out with the kids but let’s be honest, I’ve never skied, I don’t pick up on things easily, and I’m pretty much a chicken at the thought of flying down a mountain locked in to pointy long boards on my feet. Once I did lessons though and I got going, I actually was really enjoying myself. I decided maybe I could graduate from the bunny hill to the green slope… This is where it got interesting. I would start to pick up speed and FREAK OUT! So that left me only one option, sit down, make myself fall. I did this so many times the first several times down. On about time #8 I decided I was not going to intentionally fall to stop my speed. I decided that I was going to try it. If I fell, no big deal, I wanted to make it down. The last four times down the slope, I didn’t fall a single time. The problem had never been that my body couldn’t do it, that I couldn’t handle the speed, or that I couldn’t make the turns. My body knew what to do. The problem all along was that I didn’t trust my body to do it!

Read 2 Corinthians 3.5.

I know what you’re thinking… “Didn’t you just tell us that we couldn’t trust anything or anyone but God? Now you’re telling us to trust ourselves?” Yes and No. Don’t trust yourself… trust God to work through you. You will never be good enough. You will never be talented enough… on your own. But GOD equips you. He helps you be enough! When He leads you to do something, do it trusting that He will work through you.

Read Matthew 25.14-29.

Why would I have you read this story? The man who buried his talent was afraid he would lose it. He was afraid that if he used it, it wouldn’t be good enough, or that he wouldn’t get anything more out of it. So he hid it and his master was furious. So many times God gives us talents, gifts, opportunities, open doors and we choose not to walk through them with the fear that we won’t be good enough. Maybe you are afraid that you won’t speak well enough or perform well enough or that you will mess up and look bad. Living with Christ has never been and never will be about trusting your own abilities! But by trusting God… We must trust Him to work in us and through us for His glory!

Read Psalm 37.4-5.

This is my life verse. Why? Because when we are totally delighting ourselves in the Lord (seeking Him, trusting Him, finding our joy in Him) and we commit to Him (we put all that seeking and trusting into action by chasing Him), we can trust that HE WILL ACT! EVERY TIME!!

- Read Philippians 2.13. Do you trust God to work through you? To teach what to do and how to do it? IF not, why? What’s holding you back?

- Read Matthew 10.20. Do you believe God will speak for you?

- Thinking back to the story we read in Matthew…. Do you hide out of fear that you won’t be good enough or that you might mess up?

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~Day 4~
Why Them?

Well it had been quite the adventurous week. As I said this past weekend I went skiing and now I want to tell you about another out of my norm experience for the week. On President’s Day some of my friends wanted to go hiking. Now while I used to hike up little mountains in my back yard when I was about 9 or 10, it’s sometime I haven’t experienced in YEARS! And never quite this big. We arrived and looked at the mountain and were informed it would be a three mile hike to the top…. As you can imagine I wasn’t too excited. We hiked and hiked and we knew we were about two thirds of the way up and we come up on rocks… huge rocks… boulders. That we were going to have to climb up on and across to get to the top. I thought there’s no way. No way I can do it. No way I’ll make it up. My lack of enthusiasm turned into a huge amount of fear. I’m terrified of heights. I’m clumsy. My friend Mike (the crazy hiker who coordinated this whole event) is very, very strong though. There were several times he had to practically lift the kids and some of us girls on to the rocks. Towards the end I was trusting him more and more knowing that he hadn’t let me fall so far and wasn’t going to. But then…. we got to the last boulder… the pinnacle. It was much bigger than any rock we had got on before and because it was the last one, there seemed to be nothing around it. I was terrified. I decided that I would just stay the rock right below the pinnacle. That was good enough for me. But Mike insisted that I did not come all that way to not make it to the very top. After much encouragement and him promising multiple times that he would get me up and not let me fall, I went for it. There was nothing I could do to help myself. I had to trust that he would get me there… and he did. And it was gorgeous.

The point is, I never would have made it to the top without my friend. If I hadn’t trusted him, I would have just sat on the level right below the top.

In the Christian life, God sends people into our lives to help us. To encourage us. To challenge us. To guide us. To reach our full potential in our walk with the Lord we have to trust God and trust those that He sends our way. We need to trust them to help us grow and be active in helping others grow.

Read Hebrews 10.24-25.

There is so much importance placed on encouragement and fellowship throughout Scripture. Surround yourself with people running after Christ and allow them to help you grow towards Jesus. Also be that encourager for those around you.

Read Galatians 6.2.

We are also called to carry one another’s burdens. When someone needs help, we should give it. Their troubles should be our troubles. In the reverse sense we have to allow others to be there for us in our trials. To pray with us and speak truth to us.

- When someone tries to encourage you or point you to Christ to you receive it and thank them for it? Or do you have the mentality that you can do it yourself?

- Reflect again on Galatians 6.2. do you allow others to help you bear your burdens? Or do you choose to carry them alone?

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~Day 5~
With All?

Read Proverbs 3.5-6.

There’s that word again…. ALL. We should trust Him with EVERYTHING!

You can trust Him with all and when you do…
He will bring……..

JOY

Read Psalm 33.20-21.

Our hearts can be glad because we trust in HIM!

PEACE

Read Isaiah 26.3-4.

PERFECT PEACE!...... Who would ever say I don’t want peace? When we trust God and fix our thoughts on Him… He gives PERFECT PEACE!

- Do you have that joy that only comes from trusting God?

- Do you have that peace that only comes from trusting God?

- Think on ways this week that you can trust God more?